Scarlet Rings
by SlippingSanity
Summary: Chazz has has a red ring around his wrist since he was born, but what should happen if the reason for the scarlet ring should appear? BastionChazz JadenSyrus ZaneAlexis Better summary inside
1. Chapter One : Dreams

SlippingSanity : Hello all who are reading this! This story will be my fouth addition and second multi-chapter addition to the YuGiOh GX Fanfictions! Yay!

Side Notes : I would like to inform all who are reading this story that this will be a yaoi. Secondly, I would like to inform you all that this is an Alternate Universe fanfiction, so not everything in this writing, if anything, will be directly related to what's been viewed in the show or read in the manga (I think there's a manga). I will try my best to incorperate many themes, but please try to keep in mind that the alternate universe status of this story will probobly rob away many themes in turn. I am, however, not trying to say this in order to place a veil over my ignorance. If there is something in the story that does not appear to be correct, or if it is not mentioned at all but should be, please feel free to let me know. I will try to correct my mistakes, or inform as to why something is not there or is the way it is.

Also, I have alot of troble of keeping people in character, so if someone (or many) would like to help me, please do so.

Now that this has been cleared up, I would like to introduce the first chapter of my new fanfiction.

Anime : YuGiOh GX

Title : Scarlet Rings

Summary : (Alternate Universe) The red ring around Chazz's wrist never seems to disappear. It was there during his birth, and will remain until his death, for it is the marking left over from his former self. But what if this 'former self' decides he wants to be rid of the cursed circle? How will it bode for Chazz and those around him? And what about the other person that is supposed to help complete the prophcey?

Character One : Chazz Princeton

Character Two : Bastion Misawa

Pairings : Bastion Misawa / Chazz Princeton

Jaden Yuki / Syrus Truesdale

Zane Truesdale / Alexis Rhodes

...and possibly others.

Genre : Action/Adventure / Romance / Fantasy

Rating : M

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Chapter One

_Scarlet Rings : Dream_

Beige grains of sand glittered in heavy doses across the horizon, flying wayward with the hot wind. The golden sun which slowly descened the sky sky shone down upon the heavily robed messanger as he ran as best he could across the unstable domain. The messanger's feet sunk deep into the earth as he traveled in his hurried pace towards the rich oasis within his eye's view, his mouth passing hot, dry breath from having already swallowed his last provisions of water. He thought not of such details, however, because he was soon to be rewarded for the news he barely contained within his mind. This life saving information, he was sure, would bring him to near golden status. He would reach heights only climbed by kings and queens, and be admired far and wide. Yes, an exhausting run through an unbearably hot and humid desert was a small price to pay for fame.

With renewed vigor, the cloaked man ran towards his destination with a smile. He would be famous! He would be a hero! This news would make him practically a God!

"I'm almost there!" The man cried out, his voice harsh and cracked with dryness. "I'm almo-"

He inhaled sharply as he was stricken with a sudden pain in his abdomen, his body paralyzed with the painful burning sensation. The man's eyes traveled downwards, widening with extreme fear as he took note of the reason for his flaring pain. The messenger coughed up a stangled scream associated with blood which stained his teeth. The crimson liquid dropped to the sullied sand ground, blending in with the blood that fell from his lower chest captivity.

The hand protruding from the messenger's body turned slowly, a sickening sound of gurgles and small, numerous snaps frightened the messenger. Thoughts of death and feelings of fear intensified as the blood lined fingers poking through him flexed, the sharp nails of the hand glistening with his blood slowly danced in delight of his life liquid.

"Thanks for leading me to the city, old man. I never would have made it without you," The voice of the owner of the deadly limb whispered into the messenger's ear, his hot breath and eerily casual tone sending chills down the older man's spine and causing him to shudder.

"Are you afraid?" The clawed one asked the messenger with mock concern as he pulled the impaled man closer to himself, coiling his free arm around the older man's waist to ensure his captivity. He twisted his hand inside the male's flesh, his smirk increasing with satisfaction as he felt the slick internal organs wrap around his wrist and lower arm. He listened with amusement and delight as the old man screamed in pain, jerking to move away from the tightly coiled cause of pain as more blood passed from the hole in his flesh and fell from his mouth. "Do you want me to let you go?"

The old messenger rapidly nodded his head, screaming out his answer of "Yes!" repeatedly as blood sprayed from his teeth and tears fell from his eyes. He wanted to be free of he inhuman amount of pain he felt, and rid of the foreign hand stabbed directly through his body. He wanted to be free of the odd feeling of air passing into him without the help of his lungs, and rid of the warm, wet feeling of his own blood pouring down his body. The messenger wanted to be free of the bone-shaking fear instilled in him from even the thought of the other behind him. He wanted to be free of it all!

"Please! Free me from this pain!" The messenger cried out, his words forced out from his throat constricting sobs.

The younger nodded his head and pulled his hand back with a skill he was so used to preforming with. The almost instantaneous flick of his wirst, the quick grab at the soft and moist human innards, the friction between his hand, the treasure within his grasp, and the sharp spine never remained foreign for too long. Yet, though he had done such things before, he found it never ceased to amuse him when the pink and red organs became tightly strung between his hand and where ever they were connected in the body, before his strength ripped the organs from the body in a manner he was sure was painful.

Blood showered from the body of the messenger as the new corpse was dropped to the ground.

"Once again..." the clawed murderer whisper, dropping what he ripped from the other man to the ground. "And after this, no more..."

His black hair snapped with the wind direction, shadowing his eyes from anyone who might see him. Blood from his latest kill dripped from his right hand and created small droplets of puddles in his wake as he continued towards his destination. He, however, did not care. It didn't matter to him if anyone followed him to the oasis. If someone did decide to follow after him...

"It'd be their lost!" The black haired murderer smirked, running his left hand through his long, blowing, spiked locks.

"I recommend no one travels to The Land of Alezeia tonight! At least, not without the proper head gear. I say this because..." The murderer yelled into the air, his words seeming to change the flow of the current and sweeping the warning behind him as if to make sure his message was heard. Crimson eyes opened, the hot fire of determination and murder intensifying as the sky grew darker and the night grew colder.

His voice fell into a near whisper, his words spoken in a near growl mixed in with the sensation that ran through his body.

"...it's going to rain blood..."

* * *

Dark gray eyes opened abruptly, the owner of those eyes bucking upwards in his bed in fright, his mouth parted as he inhaled and exhaled deeply. Sweat covered his body in a thin sheet, making him involuntarily shiver when he felt a draft. 

_What the hell! What was that?_ The teen asked himself mentally. He buried his face into the palms of his hands while groaning. He had been having similar dreams to the one he'd just experienced, and it was beginning to grow tiresome. Angrily he flopped back onto his pillow, pulling his warm covers over his body. He turned to his side as if doing so would mean he was turning his back on the dream he just awoke from.

"Get a grip, Chazz," He growled angrily at himself, "It's just a stupid dream!"

Part of him was disturbed by the dream and wanted to further think about what the dream meant, but most of the teen decided it was best to sleep and forget. And so he went to sleep.


	2. Chapter Two : NeoDomino

SlippingSanity: I would like to thank everyone who read this story, and a special thank you to those who reviewed! Thank you all!

Disclaimer: I do not own…

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Chapter Two

Scarlet Rings: Neo-Domino

Destiny: 1) The fortune, fate, or lot of a particular person or thing, considered as something inevitable or necessary. 2) The power believed to determine events in advance: _events shaped by destiny._

He, of course didn't believe in such a thing. Destiny? Ha! Only for the foolish and those afraid to live their own lives. Destiny was nothing more than an excuse for cowardice, because it is their _destiny_ to fall before a forbidding life. What a load of crap!

Darkly colored irises stared at the city around him, his sights idly falling upon the tops of the many surrounding buildings before returning to the clear blue sky far above his head. The cool breeze blew gently, once again causing onyx strands of hair to streak his view of the clear light blue. With one hand and an annoyed groan the stray strands were combed back into the spiky style of his hair, once again his never flawless appearance was perfected.

He didn't believe in destiny, but that is what the land of Neo-Domino was built on. Or, at least that's what he heard.

Light peach skin parted in a smirk exposing pearl white teeth to the open air. Perhaps he would know more if he went to his history class, but today he didn't feel like it. He wanted a break form working his mind and body. Besides, he could always copy off of Jaden's..._Syrus's_ notes. Yes, definitely copy the smarter of the two, even if the other is smarter by nothing more than a margin.

The thought of the chestnut haired youth and his light blue haired boyfriend made the other to contemplate on what the two were currently doing, but with a disturbed shake of the head the thought was banished. He really, really did not want to think of what the two were doing. The thought of the relationship between Jaden and Syrus was enough to drive anyone mad…Well, anyone dealing with unrequited love. Anyone such as himself.

Chazz exhaled, his dark eyes closing as he began to drift into a much needed sleep. The nightmare from his previous sleeping kept him awake despite all the failed attempts to return asleep and now he was as tired as the yellow sun was bright.

Chazz spread his arms wide on the concrete roof beneath his lying body, relishing in the heat from the sun's rays as the heat stayed trapped within the black clothing covering his body. He relaxed his muscles, allowing every limb to rest alongside his tired mind.

"You know, you really should be in class," a voice all too familiar to the tired Chazz filled his ear, the tone of the spoken words one of someone whom quite obviously had an enjoyable nights sleep.

"Go away!" Chazz snapped, his eyes remaining closed as he turned in the opposite direction of the other boy's sing-song voice. Perhaps the obvious action would tell the other that he did not wan to be bothered.

"Aw, I know you don't mean that Chazz!"

Nope, he didn't get it. It flew over his head higher than an airplane over and ant's head.

Addressed boy sat up quickly from his relaxed position, turning towards the brown haired boy sitting down next to him with anger. He glared heatedly at the boy whom sat next to him. He wore a black shirt under an open red jacket, with faded blue jeans and a pair of red and black sneakers.

"I mean it, Jaden! Leave me alo-" a yawn interrupted Chazz's speech, forcing him to remain silent when he wanted to yell as many obscurities as he knew at the shorter boy.

Jaden smiled at his dark haired friend, his nutmeg eyes crinkled with amusement as he watched his black clad friend glare at him with a slight blush before turning away.

"No need to be shy!" Jaden teased as he laughed while patting Chazz on the back.

Chazz growled angrily, slapping Jaden's hands off of his person as though he were greatly offended. He did not want to be touched by the other, nor anyone. To him, no one was worthy of touching his perfect body. Perfect figure. Perfect muscle tone. Flawless. Of course, it was on more than one occasion that his personal space was invaded, and his flawless body was temporarily marred by the horrific touch of another.

"What do you want?" Chazz spoke reluctantly, the fact that Jaden was not going to leave him anytime soon grating on his nerves.

"Nothing," Jaden replied, leaning his head on the black jacket covered shoulder of Chazz's and closing his eyes. "I just need a place to come down."

Chazz glared at the shorter youth. He didn't exactly approve the contact, as this was part of the reason for the glare, but he mainly held the expression because he did not approve of what Jaden was doing. It wasn't like the cinnamon haired boy did not know what he was doing. Jaden knew exactly what he was doing to himself. It's just "the addition is his antidote". At least, that's what Jaden sticks to. The dark haired teen turned his direction from the parted lips of the sleeping other on his shoulder and looked towards the rooftops of the city of Neo-Domino.

Where this new world exist, there was once a place of peace named Domino. Domino, currently known as the Divine City, was the most prosperous place to have ever been created. People and food ran abuntantly and living space was never limited. Even though Domino was dubbed "city", it was large enough to be it's own large state. Possibly two states even. But even all of the land one could possibly dream of possessing could not prevent the fall of Domino, for Domino was doomed to fall from the very start of its existance.

Why was it fated to fall? What could possibly cause such a grand place to fall to it's knees? Such questions can only be answered by destiny and fate, but it is clear to all of humanity that Domino fell in order to win the battle against an evil that threatened to destroy the world.

Where as white clouds currently meets blue sky, heavy crimson met pitch black. No sun shone through the thunderous sky, as the time of Domino's end was a time of darkness. Light still existed in the world, but only in a select few. Darkness had consumed the hearts and minds of many and had driven the comsumed into eternal madness, causing them to do many things they would never do. Murder, thievery, unmentionable unjustices were common things in the wave of Darkness that swept over Domino.

Yugi, the kind ruler of the north of Domino, Joey, the determined ruler of the west of Domino, Ryou, the gentle ruler of the south of Domino, and Malik, the wise ruler of of the east of Domino. The four rulers were said to have met at the tallest building in the center of Domino, each shinning brightly with the trait that depicted their personality. Yugi, the kind one, offered the other three the option of staying behind. Joey, the determined one, showed Yugi that no one was willing to back down. Ryou, the gentle one, eased any nervousness and fear that any of the three might have had. Malik, the wise one, instructed the rules on what needed to be done and when.

As the four stood far above the earth with their hands held up high, their lovers were unwillingly left to watch. Rain pelted the earth in heavy doses, lightning ran as rapidly as a fast animanl and as bright as the high noon summer sun, and thunder boomed at the highest decibles as the darkness tried to fight off the four opposers.

With the strongest of their wills, hearts, and magic, the darkness was conquered. However, the result of victory was the lives of the four rulers and their lovers, as well as the complete disapperence of the Divine City of Domino. Only scattered remains of the once prosperous city remain the evidence that such a battle took place, and that the events took place to begin with.

"The creation from destruction. That's all this land is."

Chazz snapped out of his thoughts at the sound of the foreign voice, his body beginning to surge with adrenalin should the person who spoke not know their place. With a slight twitch of his tense hand a warning stream of energy shot out towards the intruder, the stream of power gliding along the cement roof and stopping a short centimeter away from the newest addition on the rooftop.

"I'm not here to pick a fight," the inturder spoke to Chazz, his arms held up as if he were showing a sign of giving up or surrender.

"Then why are you up here?" Chazz glared at the other boy.

The other boy had yet to identify himself as he casually shrugged a reply to Chazz's demanded question. He had dark eyes which held a sort of distant gaze about them. His skin was a darker shade of cream than his own, yet lighter than Jaden's. The other boy's hair was black, not unlike his own Chazz noticed, except the other teen's hair was shorter and gelled back. He wore a heavily threaded cotton green turtle neck shirt under a bright yellow jacket, black jeans which appeared to have been worn only about twice since they were brought, and a pair or yellow shoes with black top and sides.

"Hello?" Chazz spoke in an aggravated tone.

"Yes?" The other looked at him with questioning.

"Who are you?" Chazz looked the teen up and down, "And what the hell do you want?" His words did not come out in a tone of asking as it did a demand or a command to reply.

"My apologizes," the tall, yellow jacketed teen responded, "My name is Bastion Misawa. As for the reason for me being here, I was sent up here by the principal to escort you and Jaden Yuki to the classroom."

"Really, now?" Chazz eyed the taller teen. "Good luck." Chazz stretched his limbs while yawning. He returned to his once forgotten laid out position on the roof, grunting slightly when Jaden's top half fell horizontally of of his own.

"So, you're not going to come?"

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Chazz replied scarcastically, closing his eyes with an expression of peace that one only got resting in a bed.

"Yeah, what did?" Jaden's voice suddenly filled the air, "especially since we're on our way there right now. Right, Chazz?"

Chazz opened one eye to look at the newly awoken teen.

"Get off of me!" Chazz yelled, rolling Jaden's body off of his. "And no, I'm not going!"

"But why not?" Jaden asked, standing and brushing the dirt off of the bottom of his jeans.

"I'm tired. I'm just going to sit here and get the rest I was robbed of last night," the dark haired teen answered, turning on to his side and closing his eyes. He was determined to get some sleep, reguardless of what the principal wanted from him. At this moment in time, the principal could ride a one horse open sleigh to hell for all Chazz could care.

"Really? Well then I'll just stay up here with you!" Jaden proudly announced, sitting down next to the now wide awake Chazz.

"What? No! Leave!"

"Nope. I'm not leaving you alone up here, Chazz!" the brown eyed youth boasted, scooting closer to the all black dressed teen with a bright smile on his face.

Chazz stood up angrily, muttering curses upon Jaden's head for being so annoying. With anger and tiredness in his every step, Chazz made his way towards the door which lead downstairs towards the classroom he and Jaden should have currently been occupying.


	3. Chapter Three : Limitations

SlippingSanity: To all of those who read and review this story, I would like to thank you! Thank you!

Disclaimer: I do not own...

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Chapter Three

_Scarlet Rings: Limitations_

Limitation: 1) Something that limits; restriction. 2) The act of limiting or the state of being limited.

Limit: 1) A point or line beyond which something ends or cannot go. 2) The boundary surrounding a certain area. 3) The greatest amount of something allowed. 4) To place a limit on; confine.

Silence echoed loudly throughout the auditorium in which the students of all classes occupied. From the spotlessly white floor to the high dome-shaped ceiling, nothing other than the breathing of the students could be heard. Inhale and exhale. The semi-automatic function seemed as though it were an impossible task; as though breathing were like truing to fill a lake using a bucket full of holes. In the silence students trembled, all eyes opened wide with anticipation and fear. Fear had the strength to cripple even the loudest of voices and cut even the longest of tongues to shreds, and at the moment fear was at the peak of its strength.

Students at Duel Academy waited anxiously for their row to be called towards the center of the circle platform covering most of the floor span. Many sat with dread, others with confidence, and others -Jaden for instance- sat completely worry free. Jaden sat in the seat second to Chazz's left, in between Chazz and himself sat Jaden's boyfriend Syrus Truesdale. Unlike Jaden's seated calm, Syrus shook just like the other students, if not then more. Chazz sat cross-legged in his seat while lazily watching as more than half of the school's population seemed no different than that of a victim in a horror movie.

"How come people are so wound up?" Jaden asked as his brown eyes surveyed a pale student shaking as they held their hand out towards a man whom sat at a small glass table in the middle of the circle platform. "Isn't this just some sort of check up or something?"

Chazz rolled his eyes at the other's naivety while scoffing. He crossed his arms over his chest, the fabric of his attire rustling slightly with the action.

"How stupid _are_ you?" The black-haired teen asked Jaden with a frown.

"It's the ceremony of limitations," Jaden's sky color haired boyfriend quickly spoke; hopping that Jaden would just ignore Chazz's less than necessary comment.

"'Ceremony of Limitations'?" Jaden repeated the words with confusion, looking into Syrus's gray orbs as it to silently ask the other to further explain his words.

"Don't you pay any attention in class?" Chazz intervened.

"I pay about as much attention in class as you do during math lessons," Jaden smiled at Chazz, satisfied when Chazz glared at him. He'd obviously won that battle of words. It didn't take a genius to see that Chazz wasn't doing as well as he could in math. Chazz claimed that the class bored him to death, but Jaden held his suspicions..."So Sy, what were you saying?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah! The ceremony is a requirement for everyone who lives in Neo-Domino. Limitations are given to those who have the potential to become...a threat," Syrus answered Jaden's question, his voice dripping to a near whisper as he finished the last two words. To him, the idea of even saying more than a vague expression of what the "treat" actually meant sent a shiver of fear prickling up his spine and back down again.

"Well that hardly seems like any fair!" Jaden expressed his opinion with raised arms and furrowed eyebrows, a scowl of disapproval on his face. "Just because someone has more power than someone else does not mean that the powerful one should be held down! I mean, I'm all for equality and all, but without anyone stronger than you, how can anyone expect to get any stronger?"

"What are you talking about?" A student the three had never seen before interfered, resting on his knees in order to look into the faces of the three talking teens. With a smile twitching slightly as it was trying to hide the confusion and curiosity the boy felt, he sat in eager anticipation of the next words to flee any one of the three boy's lips.

Jaden, Chazz, and Syrus were surprised, their surprise evident in their wide eyes and their rigid bodies. A slight grunt from Chazz showed his anger towards the nosy teen seated in the row of chairs. What was the matter with society now? Didn't people know how to mind their own damn business?

Chazz rolled his dark colored eyes as he exhaled loudly. He sat in a lazy posture while holding the uncerimonial note, showing the other boy his irritation. The boy, in turn, smiled wider, and the annoying twitch at the side of his lips increased from the strain. Obviously no, not all people minded their own business. Great.

"Why are you in our conversation anyway?" Chazz snapped more so at the annoying twitch in the boy's smile than at the boy himself. The nervous twitch agitated him greatly. To Chazz it seemed as though for every one twitch of the nosy boy's upper lip there was two twitches of annoyance from his own right eye. "Turn around!" _Or stop that annoying twitching!_

"Aw, come on Chazz!" Jaden smiled, "He just wants to know what's up!"

"Fine," Chazz found himself replying, "I'll _personally_ tell him."

Chazz felt fear. Immense fear. It was the type of fear of being lost in a crowd as a child, or even the fear of losing someone close to you. _No, this can't be right! What am I saying?_ Chazz thought rapidly. He wanted to ask for someone to help him because at this moment he couldn't help himself. It felt as though he were out of his body; as though he were only seeing through his own eyes, and not acting through his own body. Chazz watched as his body leaned forward, so close to the boy seated in front of him, and placed his lips not far from the other boy's ear.

"I hate that twitch." Chazz heard himself whisper to the other, "It bothers me." Chazz felt his arms rise from the back of the chair he used to support his leaned position. Slowly, with a calm that was only given to a severely injured person, Chazz felt the warm skin of the other's cheeks with the palm of his hands. As if he were whispering calm words instead of the haunting tone he had as he spoke, Chazz heard himself continue to speak.

"The twitching should stop; it doesn't go well with your smile. I like your smile, really I do, but he..._him_...he thinks that twitch of yours is annoying. Perhaps we should stop that. Yes, we should. I know the perfect way to stop it. I'll just rip the muscles out of your face! Yes, that's what I'll do! I'll sew the corners of your mouth up into the pretty smile that you have. Won't that be adorable? I think so. The beautiful smile held up by the pain of wire. That is truly beautiful. After all, beauty and pain are practically hand in hand. Don't you agree?"

Chazz could feel the boy's fear in the palm of his hands. Chazz could feel the boy tremble as the words took their effect. He boy's hot breath puffed on his cheek at a slowly increasing rate, and his skin started to become sweaty. With disgust Chazz acknowledged that he could actually taste the salty liquid of fear that soaked the boy's skin, and the fact that his body seemed to enjoy that taste disgusted him even further. Whatever this force was that was making him do these things seemed to really enjoy the sweat of panic, the trembles from horror, and the breathing and heart rate of pure heart-stopping fear.

_"I want this fear..."_

Chazz winced as he heard the foreign voice whisper in his mind. It wreaked malice and evil intentions. Whomsoever it was, he didn't know. What was actually happening to him?

_What are you?_

"_Take this fear…"_

_Who are you?_

"_Take his life!"_ The voice boomed in Chazz's head, causing pain to throb within every inch of his mind.

His mouth opened in a mute scream, his eyes clenched tightly as his hands clutched desperately at the sides of his head. Chazz bent forward as he shook, his breath coming in slowly and heavily.

_What…what was that?_

"Chazz?" the whisper of a worried Syrus reached his ears, the soft patting of Syrus's hand on his back slowly bringing Chazz back down to earth from his painful mental attack.

As if he were being drenched under a cool flow of crystal clear ice water. The burning sensation of the yelling voice dissipated into next to nothing. The horrifying sensation Chazz burned with to attack the trembling, pale boy seated before him was nothing more than a dull throb echoing through his skin. The small circle of soft pats began to cool Chazz into a soft, almost dream-like state. It felt as though Chazz were slipping away from reality, and it was this calm was a contrast between what the feeling did to his mind and what it did to his body.

_Stop it!_ Chazz yelled mentally, afraid of the sickly sweet feeling of the cool relaxation. The burning was something he had grown close to. As long as the scarlet red ring around his wrist was there, Chazz was given pain. He lived with the pain and, as twisted as it may have come off towards anyone who heard him, Chazz actually began to like the pain. But Syrus, the way he illuminated the darkness of pain with nothing more than a few pats of his hand upon his back, it was…it was… _I'm afr…_

"Get off!" Chazz shrugged Syrus's hand off of his back and sat into an upright position.

"Are you feeling okay?" Syrus asked Chazz, his gray eyes glittering with obvious concern.

"I'm fine," Chazz replied, shaking his head from side to side to clear his mind.

"Chazz? What color are your eyes?" Jaden asked Chazz, staring into the taller teens eyes with scrunched eyes that held a look of confusion and wondering.

"They're pink!" Chazz snapped sarcastically, rolling his eyes at the stupid question he was just asked.

"No…No, they're not. Your eyes, they look darker than that."

"_Really?_" Chazz asked with a tone heavy with sarcasm.

"Yeah," Jaden replied in a tone of utter seriousness, "They look kinda like bl—"

"Excuse me!" Jaden was interrupted by a person at the end of their row of seats who held a clipboard in his hand, "But it's your turn to go up to the platform."

Chazz stood from his seat and walked down the stairs towards the pure white platform that decided whether of not he would receive a limiter.

A limiter wasn't what Jaden thought it was. A limiter did not restrain someone, but rather it restrained _something_. No, wait. That was a wrong assumption. The limiter did restrain the powers of some of the people who had received them, Chazz had known two who currently had the golden devices donned upon them, but it was really for their own protection. Yes, this is true, because those two, especially tie elder, was a threat to himself and the people around him. But no, Chazz was not his own threat. Really, he wasn't. He was just going forward to have his future looked into, to see if _he_ were the forbidden child.

The forbidden child or "the one whom should be forgotten" was the unlucky child who harbored the soul of the most feared person to ever have stepped upon the plain of humankind. The unfortunate child was given a special limiter heavy with divine magic and stained with the blood of the Queen of Alezeia. It was said that the heavily enchanted limiter was the only thing that could hold back the demon.

"But, you know Chazz, there are more ways to hold back the demon."

The addressed boy was snatched out of his thoughts by the new voice. The one to snap Chazz back into reality smiled, his dark purple eyes crinkled in a sort of given yet forced affection.

"How do you know my name?" Chazz questioned, his voice high and loud with suspicion.

"Chazz, I know a lot of things about you," the strange man spoke to Chazz, his voice deep and rich with secrets. The man was very pale and skinny, almost as if he had never seen daylight or any hint of the outside world in a very ling time. His hair was two different colors, a bold streak of silver-white was in the front of his hair, and the rest of his hair was a rich blue. The stranger dressed in white sat at the clear glass table, his slender fingers shuffling the long rectangular tarot cards. "I know your past, and we'll soon know your future."

Chazz's dark eyes squinted at the man as his hands shuffled the face down cards on the table.

"You don't believe in my abilities," The man stated as fact.

"Who would?" Chazz replied, glaring at the man across the table from him.

"If you do not believe in me," the seated man began, his hands rising from the tarot cards, "then I won't force it, at least, not yet."

"What--?"

"Just know, Chazz, that you and all that surround you…well, you'll soon find out."

The pale man stood from his glass seat, his earrings chiming from the movement, with a smile on his face. He made a quick grab for Chazz, grabbing his wrist. Chazz gasped from the tight grip.

"If you won't let me, then you'll bring you and all those around you into an early grave," the purple eyed man whispered to the teen, his words spoken in a tone of almost casual conversation less than a warning. "But when you're ready to admit to the truth, just come to me."

"Fat chance!" Chazz replied in a harsh whisper, the tingling, burning sensation that once eluded him now renewing.

The pale man released Chazz and walked away, a smirk on his face. He knew Chazz would react the way he did, for Chazz was a difficult one. _But in due time, he will come…_

Chazz watched as the man walked away from him, a glare fixed on the back of the unknown man's head. He didn't agree with the other man, but for some unknown reason, Chazz felt as though he should have listened to the other man. With each step the adult male took away from him, Chazz sank deeper and deeper into a feeling of fear and regret. Maybe, just maybe, he should not have let the other man walk away.


	4. Chapter Four : Sin

SlippingSanity: Hello all readers and readers! Firstly, I would like to thank all of you for stopping to read this story! Thank you! Secondly, I would like to say that I am trying to update at least two chapters before Christmas. I'm not going to be around any computers for a couple of weeks, an I want to make sure that everyone is satisfied before I leave you all for a couple of weeks (at best, two and a half weeks tops! I will also write out my fanfic so that when I return there will be a lot for you all to enjoy!) I am not making any promises to have two chapters up, but I will try my best to do so! Oh, and also Chazz is only like how he is in the beginning of this chapter. I don't plan on making him act the way he is in the beginning alot (in case you haven't noticed, I'm being deliberately vague). Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own…

* * *

Chapter Four

_Scarlet Rings: Sin_

Sin: 1a) an offence against religious or moral law. 1b) an action that is or is felt to be highly reprehensible. 1c) an often serious shortcoming.

Chazz glared at his reflection in his bathroom mirror, his glare directed towards the golden newly added ornament to his features. He raised his right hand and let his fingers casually flow over the shiny jewelry, his fingertips brushing over the many elegant twists and weaves the foreign object. With a heavy sigh his hand was slammed body on the schools' bathroom sink, curses instantly spewing forth because of the pain he'd just caused himself.

"It could be worse," Chazz whispered to himself, his own voice echoing at him from the empty bathroom walls, "I could have no limiter at all."

The second he had finished the sentence fear seized him, its cold fingers sending pricks of chills through his body. Chazz began to tremble violently, his eyes widening, his knees feeling as though they may give out at that second.

_No limiter! No, not that! That's the sign of a weakling! No limiter means that your power is not so much as a threat, and I want to be feared! I want to be looked upon as on of the greatest!_ Chazz's thoughts whirl winded out of control, insults from his two older brothers screaming at him to become stronger and to be the best buzzed around rapidly. They both had limiters, and if Chazz had not had his own then he was nothing. Chazz was nobody.

Chazz stumbled backwards, catching himself before he fell to the bathroom tile. He pressed his hands to the sides of his face and shook his head from side to side in an attempt to rid himself of the vicious words of his brothers. With each shake of his head Chazz was assaulted by the harsh words and yelled insults, and with each shake of his head Chazz wished for the voices to leave him alone.

"Stop it…" Chazz forced past his lips, his muttered words falling so low even a dog would not pick up on what he had just said. "Leave me alone…" His voice quivered, his lips trembling with every syllable. "I have one, see?" The pale boy spoke, trying to reason with the voices in his mind, "I'm not a weakling. I have my own limiter, just like you two!"

"As if!" The voice of one of his brothers, Slade, broke through the chaos of madness.

"Yeah," The voice of his other brother, Jagger, agreed. "You'll never be 'just like us'!"

"No!" Chazz yelled, stomping his foot in his rage. "I am just like you!"

"Face facts, Chazz! You're not like us and never will be!" The two seemed to yell at the same time, their words and tone hitting Chazz like a physical blow, sending forced air out of the frustrated teen. "You'll never be as successful as us! You'll never be as adored as us! You will never be on the _same level_ as us! Do you understand?"

"No!" Chazz yelled as he slid against a bathroom stall's door. He was beginning to grow tired and his eyes could barely stay open. The mental assault hurt too much, and exhausted him mentally. Just as the other times before, Chazz began to fall to sleep; his own countering words his lullaby. "I am just like you…right?" He was quiet for a few seconds before whispering the final words before falling asleep. "No, not like them. I'll never be like them."

"_Of course you won't."_ The voice Chazz faintly remembered hearing in his mind from the ceremony caressed him, _"You'll never be like them. You'll always be better."_

* * *

_He's here!_ Jaden heard someone speak to him, but he ignored it. Jaden always did. Instead the brunette's attention remained on his gray eyed boyfriend and the kiss the two were currently sharing. 

_Let's go!_ The voice spoke with enthusiasm, as though he were waiting for this "he" to show up for a long time. Jaden, however, wouldn't find it surprising in the least if the other had been waiting for a long time for his "he", simply because Jaden has had to hear the voice declare the appearance of whomever over more than a few years.

"See ya, Sy!" Jaden smiled as he ran off in the opposite direction of the school building, "Love ya!"

Jaden shivered with fear. He could still feel Syrus's eyes on his back, and he knew that the other boy was worried. Jaden knew that Syrus watched to make sure that he didn't do anything…drastic and life-shortening. Jaden knew it was only because the other boy loved and cared for him, but (and he grew disgusted at himself for even assuming this) sometimes caring was, well, too much like a chain.

"_Please Jaden! Don't do this to yourself anymore!" Syrus yelled as he shook his head in disbelief and anger. "Please Jay, stop this!"_

_I'm sorry, Sy._ Jaden whispered in his mind, mentally hoping that his thoughts would somehow reach the other boy, _I tried Syrus! I tried just for you! I really, really wanted to stop, just because you asked me too!_

The brunette stopped mid-step. He 'tried'? He 'wanted to stop'? Whatever happened to "I did" and "I want"? Was he really so weak? Did he really begin to fall so hard that it didn't matter to him anymore if he was harming himself? Did he really not care about Syrus anymore?

_No!_ Jaden screamed at himself, shaking his head from side to side so hard that it seemed as though his neck might snap. _I love Syrus! I do!_

"But you're beginning to diminish, Jaden," Jaden heard himself reply. "Do you want your love for Syrus to diminish along with you, or do you want it to stay?"

Jaden bit down hard on his lips, hard enough to cause pain, yet not enough to draw blood. Syrus said he had had a habit of doing this, and Zane, Syrus' older brother, had said that Jaden had a nervous habit (which Jaden believed Zane found odd because he never seems to have anything to be nervous about), but Jaden knew better. If only the others knew…

"What? If only they knew that you torment yourself in a vain attempt to hold me back? Why do you do it anyway, Jaden? You know I truly love you. I would never allow anything to happen to you, yet you harm yourself. Am I supposed to stop you, or go on and ignore it like I do now?"

Jaden didn't reply to himself. He didn't reply to this other being inside him who controlled his mouth.

"Fine. I'll go on and go back to sleep, but I will tell the others if you don't stop this. Goodnight Jaden Yuki. I love you."

Jaden was brought out of his dreamlike nightmare by an embrace. He quickly turned around as quick as his mind could register the arms wrapped around his form. Jaden leaped back from the stranger whom had yet to be registered by his mind. Slowly Jaden began to recall who exactly it was who stood before him.

"M-mom? What are you doing out here?" Jaden exclaimed as he took a half step back and dropped his defensive stance.

"I've come to take you home, of course!" Jaden's mother smiled at him, her pearl teeth sparkling from between her parted cherry lips. Jaden's mother's hair rose as the cool wind blew, the strands glittering with sunlight as they floated by her smiling eyes. "I heard about my son receiving a limiter and I just had to come out here and see for myself!"

Jaden stood still, his body unresponsive to his mental commands. Jaden wanted to hold up his right arm and show his mother the new golden bracelet around his wrist, but nothing happened. Jaden stood dumbly before his mother, his head tilted slightly to the side as if he were questioning the reason his mother was outside of the house when she had had a terrible cold from last night.

"Are you feeling okay?" Jaden asked his mother as calmly as he could. He couldn't explain it, but Jaden felt on edge the second he left Syrus's sight. Jaden could feel the rapid tickling of adrenalin and fear under his flesh, and he could hear the command to run with every loud heartbeat that beat within his chest.

"What? Do you think that it's so odd for a mother to want to see her son and his crowning achievement?"

"No! I mean, you aren't still sick, are you?"

"No, not at all! I feel quite well actually!"

"_Jaden! There's someone behind us!"_ The one who had been talking to Jaden earlier warned the brunette.

As quickly as the words were spoken Jaden spun around to meet the oncoming threat face to face. Jaden's brown hair twirled with his abrupt movement, some strands of hair taking longer to move from his sight, but even with the brown strands of hair in his sight Jaden was able to see his attacker. The person wore nothing but black, and a black ski mask covered their face from view, but Jaden could have sworn he recognized the person—

"Ah!" Jaden cried out, his cry of pain drowned out by a hand covering his mouth.

_Not again…_ Jaden thought as he felt the cool liquid from the needle injected into his arm flow into his veins.

Jaden fell against his mother's chest, his body numb, cold, and unresponsive. Slowly Jaden's eyes began to close, the setting sun staying in front of his eyes, even as his eyes closed in unnatural sleep.

"I'm so sorry…" Jaden could hear his mother's soft tone of voice whisper in his ear. Very faintly did Jaden feel his mother caress his hair in a soothing manner as the two fell to the concrete. "Your father will be here shortly to pick us up, and we can go home and this will never have happened." Jaden could feel his mother's slow movements as she rocked back and forth, her arms wrapped around Jaden's torso, "And, hopefully, this time you won't leave the house. Your father and I get so worried when you leave. Why don't you stay home? Why don't you stay home with us?"

Jaden moved his mouth in mute reply, but before his voice could reach anyone's ears, Jaden had slipped away from consciousness…

* * *

One twitch of his middle finger. Another twitch of his entire hand. Slowly, very slowly, did his hand curl into a fist. 

Chazz opened his eyes at a slow pace, taking time so as to not irritate his eyes. The red beams from the setting sun filled into the bathroom windows near the roof, the light creating leaned shadows that filed into the corners of square place. The soft pit-pat of a leaky faucet echoed in his ears, slowly bringing Chazz back from his mental fatigue. His dull eyes squinted as he tried to concentrate on the noise. If he concentrated hard enough, he would be able to snap out of his lazy state.

"Chazz? Chazz, is that you?"

Chazz groaned in reply to the other male's (he figured that only a male would enter the boys' bathroom) voice.

"Are you alright?"

Chazz closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. After a few minutes of words unspoken by neither him nor the unknown guest, Chazz regained his strength. As quickly as Chazz believed he could, Chazz stood to his feet.

"Are you sure you should be standing? Do you need help?"

Chazz rose his eyes to meet the other's face.

"You?" Chazz exclaimed in alarm. "Bastion? What the hell do you want?"

Bastion took a half step back, his eyes slightly reflecting shock and disgust. "I was just trying to see if you were feeling okay."

"What? Mind your own business!" Chazz snapped, walking past the taller teen.

"Are you always moody?" Bastion asked as he walked along side Chazz to leave the bathroom.

Once again Chazz began to experience that "out of body" feeling. He no longer felt he had control of himself, yet at the same time he did not feel as though he was a stranger.

"Not always moody," Chazz "saw" himself speak, his words low and seductive. "Just in a _frustrated_ _mood_ when _you're_ around…"

Bastion stopped walking, his eyes wide with shock. He stared at the ebony haired boy as he watched him walk away.

Chazz screamed. He screamed from embarrassment and horror. Not only had he said…_that_…to _Bastion_, a boy he hardly knew, but he had also licked his lips at the end of his reply. What was happening to him?

"_I want him…"_

"What? Who ar—"

Chazz gasped as he was roughly 'pushed' back into his body. He gasped from the harsh push, and also from what he believed he saw. A silhouette of a being, with ivory fangs that seemed to glow. What also struck Chazz were the overwhelming feelings of anger, sadness, something unidentifiable, and bloodlust…

_Who was that?_ Chazz asked himself as he began his walk home.


	5. Chapter Five : Forerunner

SlippingSanity: Sorry for not updating sooner! I have to study for finals and all that stuff, plus I've been distracted by another fanfic, but the good thing is that you all get this chapter, right? Here you all go! Also, THANK YOU! to all of you who have reviewed/ read the last chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own...

* * *

Chapter Five

Scarlet Rings: Forerunner

Forerunner: 1) a person or thing that precedes, as in time; a predecessor. 2) a person who announces the comming of another; a herald. 3) a warning sign or a symptom.

He stumbled as he traveled in the cold, starry night in the school clothing that he hadn't bothered to change from. His dull brown eyes were slightly parted, forcing him to stay awake through the tired feeling that threatened to force his eyes shut and consume him. He panted heavily as he traveled the familiar roads to Chazz's home, his body limping and shaking as he took step after step. His legs felt weak and unstable, almost as if they were too weak to carry him. He rose an arm and rest it against the cold side of a building, using it for support as he continued down the path.

"Come on, Jaden!" He spoke to himself, his breathing comming in a heavy pants as he spoke. It felt as though he had just run a marathon instead of walked some amount of blocks and his body, being under the influence as it was, was beginning to show his fatigue. "You can make it. Don't give out on me just yet!"

With a hard push he rose off of the wall though he almost fell with the action. After staggering to regain his balance, he began to walk with rising determination. He was not going to give up, not just yet.

* * *

"Have you seen Jaden?" The frantic question was asked over the phone, the woman could be practically be seen pacing up and down in her house.

"No."

"Are you sure?" She asked once again, the panic and fear rising along with the volume of her voice.

"Yes."

"Well, if you see him let us know. Please?" Her desperate last words as she knew the conversation was over.

"Sure," Chazz replied curtly before hanging up the phone with a slam. He didn't slam the phone down because of the woman that was on the other end, but rather because of the words he had just spoken.

"Who was that?" Jaden asked as he stood behind Chazz, his eyes shining with innocence that Chazz knew the other should not have been expressing.

He had bluntly told a frantic mother and father a lie about their missing son's location. He partly wondered if that was a crime, even though he'd lied at the request of the runaway.

_There has to be_ Chazz answered himself, _Especially if you've lied multiple times!_

"You know that was your mother on the phone." Chazz removed his hands from the reciever and began to walk aroundhis room

"Not mine," Jaden shook his head in objection, his eyes closing to show how much he shut out the answer, "but Jaden's." He finished and then moved away from Chazz, turning his back to the black haired teen as if to show that he did not want to explain.

Chazz leaned against one of his room walls and crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Jaden as the brunette began to dance. He danced to his own imaginary beat, the dance steps oddly liquid and steady for such a teen who was mentally far from anything solid. His arms swayed in presice rhythm as his stepping, his hips swaying to and fro, possibly matching the unheard tune perfectly.

Chazz watched the other, the glare still on his face. He hated it when Jaden was in this state- this state of influenced life. He hated it because Jaden would lose who he was. Sure, at most times- times like now- Jaden was Jaden, hell, even moreso, but at other times Jaden would become a frightening being. Syrus could also vouch for that, both he and Chazz having personally realized that Jaden could become more vicious and frightening than his apperance let others to believe.

"Wanna dance, Chazzy?" Jaden sang while giggling and extending his arm out to the adressed other, snapping Chazz out of his musings.

"No," Chazz sharply answered as he wanted to left alone to think.

"But you used to dance in the past," Jaden still spoke in song as he continued to dance with not a faultered step.

"Oh really?" Chazz asked sarcastically, rolling his eyes and adjusting his position on the wall.

"Yeah!" Jaden purred, his listless eyes glassing over with excitement. "You used too! Was really good at it too!"

Chazz exhaled deeply as Jaden replied in the familiar way he always does. Whenever Jaden was in his current state, he always seemed to talk about "the past" and about how he used to do this, or about how Chazz used to do that. "You would know."

"I would."

"As if."

"Heh Heh!"

"I think that drug may have overloaded more than just your power," Chazz rose off of the wall and walked towards his bed. He streteched his arms over his head before layingbackwards on his bed, the soft covers and matress molding with his body, causing a comfortable relaxation to take hold. He exhaled in a relaxed manner as the muscles in his back gave into the relaxation.

In reply to Chazz's words, Jaden once again giggled, his brown eyes closed. To Chazz, Jaden currently resembled an innocent child having the time of their live in a park. Chazz thought about that for a few seconds before he was brought back to reality. Jaden was a teen and what he had done was not anything a person would call "innocent".

Overloading. It's a process in which a powerful liquid substance is injected into the body. The liquid sends the levels of a persons power into a frenzy, their levels rising and falling to instable levels, never quite on the accurate level for the person injected with it. The constant rise and fall of the person's power pressures their being physically and mentally. They become instable and unreasonable, preferring to fill in that uncomfortable feeling with any action that will please their rapidly changing level of power.

"Why are you even doing this, Jaden?" Chazz asked the teen with a slight scowl of disapproval on his face and concern in his voice, though the concern wasn't as visible as the disapproving scowl.

The brunette stopped dancing as the question was left to be contemplated. He slowly turned to face Chazz, his once smiling and carefree expression replaced with one of seriousness. The child Chazz once thought he saw grew in the span of two to five minutes.

"I don't do this, but they do this to him. They do this to him," Jaden pointed to his face and then used that same hand to cover his heart. The shadows seemed to creep up Jaden's body, almost as if they were pulling Jaden away, or as if Jaden was retreating into them for hiding. Instead of disappearing though, he finished his sentence. "They do this to Jaden because Jaden is dying."

Both teens were quiet after Jaden spoke those heavy, lead filled words. Time ceased with Jaden's sentence, leaving in its wake a deafening, ear piercing silence. Wind paused its blowing, breath hitched in the lungs. Movement became next to impossible, as it was haulted by the sheer disbelief of the statement "Jaden is dying".

"W-What?" Chazz forced out as he used his arms to raise his body from a lying position to a seated one, his arms trembling with something other than fatigue. "What are you-"

"You heard me!" He screamed at Chazz, his brown eyes shutting tightly before opening once again, the brown iris's replaced with blue as deep and clear as a newly created ocean. "Jaden's dying, but I'm not killing him. Someone else is." The blue eyes being explained, tears sliding down his cheeks as he ran his fingers in his hair, the brunette bangs lifted from his forehead further exposing the distress he felt. " Syrus. Syrus Truesdale is killing Jaden, but Jaden won't tell him! No, Jaden loves Syrus too much. He loves him to death...

"Jaden's parents tell him to leave Syrus if he wants to live, but Jaden's too stubborn. I even told Jaden to leave Syrus- told him I'd do it myself if he couldn't do it, but no. Jaden told me that if he ever figured out that I broke Syrus's heart, he'd, among other things, never forgive me. I can't accept that. I love Jaden too much, but I hate the way he's killing himself... At the rate he's going, I wouldn't be suprised if he didn't make it past his thirties..."

Chazz couldn't form any thought. His mind and thoughts clouded over with hazy storm clouds. Thunder boomed in his ears so loud it began to numb his other senses and pinpricks of fire lite every pore of his body. He felt as though he were standing in the middle of a furnace as opposed to his cool room. He screamed as the pinpricks increased in intensity, the feeling becoming so horrid that he wished for nothing more than for someone to rip his skin from his body and allow the cool air to blow and chill his blazing bones.

Choking, Chazz gasped in the little air that passed through his throat before he was submerged into the painless dark abyss...

"It's about time you woke up. I was starting to wonder if the boy was becoming too much for you to handle," The blue eyed not-Jaden spoke, the corners of his mouth raising into a smirk as the last of his tears slid down his slightly tanned skin.

"Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones," a crimson eyed Chazz replied as his slowly rose from Chazz's kneeled position. "I can sense the willpower from the one who possesses you. You most likely didn't have as nearly a time as I did."

"Heh," The blue eyed, chestnut haired teen smirked as he began to walk around Chazz's room, "Everyone has a moment of weakness."

"You're a coward."

"No more than you."

"What are you doing, Jaiyen, feeding my sealer that nonsence about his friend dying?" Crimson eyes squinted at the shorter boy as if he were reading the very answers off of the other like a book. "What are you up too? Why do you even exist?"

"I talk what comes to my mind, nonsense...or not..." Jaiyen whispered the last words towards the floor, a sorrowful expression on his face before it gave way to the playful smirk that was in place earlier. His blue eyes rose to meet crimson with a look of undeniable enjoyment. "But what persters me is the fact that _you_ of all things still walk around. Now why is that? Is someone lonely?"

"I'll kill you!" came the immediate reply as crimson eyes flew open in rage and red energy swirled into the black haired palms. "I'll make you regret those words with your lifeblood and whatever it is you bleed after death!"

"In the grave you bleed nothing but regret and sometimes happiness and fulfillment. Regret and hatred is what I bleed. Do you intend to kill that which is their embodiment?"

"I'll do more than kill you. I'll make you suffer until you beg me to finish you!"

"Such words somehow seem fitting comming from a _demon_!"

"Which is worse? A demon with loyality to none, or a traitor who all but willingly gives away such loyality? Truly answer me that, won't you, and tell me who the true demon is in this situation?" The one dubbed 'demon' laughed, his fangs glistening in the shadows of the room. The red orbs dissipated as he laughed at the other across from him, his anger dissipating as well and replacing with malicious laughter.

His laughter was cut short, however, and was replaced with groans of pain. The demon fell to the floor on his knees as he held the sides of his head. The fingers pressed hard on the flesh of his temples as if to supress a creeping headache.

"Stay asleep, Chazz!" He whispered loudly to himself though intent on the addressed dark eyed teen to heed his words. "I don't need you awake!"

His headache only seemed to increase at a faster rate, his head pounding and throbbing as though it were being hit on repeatedly by steel.

Jaiyen walked before the demon in pain with a neutral expression on his face. His eyes held no emotions and he did not smirk as fell to bended knee. Jaiyen slowly rose the crimson eyed teen's face from the floor's direction to meet his own gaze.

"If this is all you can manage to do," He whispered, his words a lullabye to the dull eyed demon, "then you'll never be able to do anything. If he can take possession back so easily, then you'll never rest in peace."

Crimson eyes parted widely before they were replaced with tired dark.

"You're strong, Chazz- I'll admit, but you're just like a ship. You're brave and strong physically and mentally, but he's like a pinprick in the side of a ship. Even the tiniest of holes can sink the mightest of ships, you just have to know where to drill, and believe me, he knows exactly where to drill." Jaiyen spoke his warning in a soothing tone as he carried Chazz and placed the almost asleep teen in bed.

Jaiyen crawled into bed next to Chazz and laid comfortably once he placed a blanket over the two. Once Chazz surrounded into sleep he swept his fingers over Chazz's forehead which was sweaty from the strain his body endured.

"I'll keep Jaden's secret what it is for now. When the time comes, you'll remember Jaden's problem," Jaiyen's words echoed into the still darkness as he began to slip away and give Jaden control, "and when that time comes, I'll be there to tear you apart."

Jaden and Chazz slept peacefully in bed, the warm blanket covering their pale and tired bodies. The stars glittered with elegance as they sparkled upon the world from far above, the moon shining over the two as if to offer the two protection, but the slowly approching sun was like a truth, letting the moon know that the two could not be saved, not from themselves in the past or present.


	6. Chapter Six : Misconception

SlippingSanity: I am so so so so sorry for not updating for such a long time! I didn't mean to make you all wait, really! As a token of my apology, here's a long chapter just for you all!

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor do I make any profit or take any of the credit. Yugioh and Yugioh GX do not belong to me, I am just borrowing them for the plot.

* * *

Chapter Six

_Scarlet Rings: Misconception_

Misconception: A mistaken idea; a delusion.

Chazz carefully wrapped his arms around Jaden's shivering form in a desperate attempt to keep the boy from lashing out voilently or even worse. He had seen the effects of the drug as it was in its last stages in the human body first hand, and nothing good had come of it. The body does as it was doing now - twitching, convulsing, shivering with an unfeelable cold. The mind does no better as the drug's effect begin to wear off and it has to find its own stability level; the mind creates illusions, false illnesses, and even phantom disorders as it begins on its slow way to recovery from the drug's shocking influence.

"Sy?" Jaden asked as he opened his eyes. One glance into his brown eyes showed Chazz that Jaden was awake, but not alert. Jaden was currently in the mist of confusion of a hallucination. "Sy, what time is it?"

"It's time for you to wake up, stupid." Chazz mumbled as he stared off to the side of the room, his eyes not wanting a second longer to stare (or rather, glare) into Jaden's. He couldn't quite place the reasoning, but he felt he knew that there was something deep in those brown eyes that he didn't want to tread in. Sure, Chazz concidered himself to be a good friend of Jaden's that would do anything for the other (though it couldn't exactly be interpeted in a direct sense), but for some reason it felt like he was being pulled back by some force that seemed to be... what? Stronger? It couldn't be. "You're starting to get on my nerves."

"Whoa, Sy! I never heard you speak to me like that before!" Jaden's eyes widened conciderably though they remained unaware and dull; he seemed like not a human, but a mere puppet on strings. "What did I do?" Jaden whispered in a heartbroken tone as he tried to worm his way free of Chazz's grip with little success. "Why are you doing this to me?"

Chazz exhaled a slow, long whistle and turned his eyes heavenward. As he rose his arm and patted soothing circles on Jaden's trembling back, he pondered the possibility of a drug's after effects being worse than the drug itself. _Well, in Jaden's case it is_ Chazz thought as he heard Jaden's low whine and felt Jaden pull the two closer in a desperate grab at something that was not going anywhere. _Yeah, especially in Jaden's case. He's so emotional..._

"Syrus, you aren't going to leave me, are you?" Jaden whispered into Chazz's chest which Chazz believed Jaden might have mistaken for Syrus's face. If it weren't such a serious period in time, Chazz faintly thought, he would have laughed at how simple-minded Jaden could be.

"No," Chazz exhaled as he rolled his eyes and played the role of the brunette's boyfriend in his imaginary play, "I'm not going to leave you, Jaden."

"You're not?" Jaden asked in the tone of desperation and saddness that seemed to have yet to fade away. He held a tight, steady grip on the back of Chazz's pajama shirt as he slid his body closer. "Really?"

"Really, Jaden," Chazz continued his acting, mentally berating himself for doing this creative play on emotions. What he right for manipulating Jaden's emotions, or was he in the wrong? Besides, what should he care about what Jaden believes was happening verse the actuality of the plain of reality.

_He flew the long distance from one side of the metal fence to the opposite side on the ground with a speed that he never had thought could be reached by humans. He screamed loudly from the impact, his eyes spilling with tears and mouth spilling with blood. His body attempted to curl within itself from the pain, but there was no way he could move without either screaming from the intermal pain or from the burning pain from cutting deeply into himself with the sharp cement that broke into glass shards from his rough landing._

_"Ja-" He attempted to speak between his deep, gasping breaths, but only succeeded in coughing up more red liquid as he shook from possible shock._

_"What are you doing?!" Chazz demanded as he watched how, within such a short amount of time, Jaden transformed from his normally kind, carefree attitude into this beast with wild eyes, wild temper, and a seemingly uncontrolable bloodlust. "Do you know you're hurting Syrus?! Jaden!"_

_"Jay..." Syrus croaked lowly as he pushed himself to, with whatever strength he had in him, stand on his own two feet. The cement cut into his palms,arms, legs, and his shoes, the small sick spatters of blood from the consecutive stabs and slices causing Chazz to wince._

_Even tough Syrus tried his hardest, he could not hold himself up. He toppled to the ground with his hand over his mouth, though blood could be easily seen leaking through the closed fingers._

_Jaden didn't reply or respond to anything,was possibly too far gone to notice. With dull, lifeless eyes filled with nothingness, Jaden charged once again at Syrus and Chazz._

The black-haired teen winced at his own memory in disgust and fear. He didn't know what it was, but that side of Jaden was induced by the fall of the drug. Suddenly, it didn't seem so wrong to act in this invisible, make believe soap opera.

"Good!" Jaden replied happily as he rose his head from Chazz's chest revealing to the taller teen his brown eyes that glistened with their normal Jaden liveliness and a smile that symbolized the same. "I won't leave you either, Chazz!" Jaden laughed at the suprised expression on Chazz's face.

"Get out!" Chazz yelled as he removed his arms from around the boy whom was just not too long ago shivering and delusional. His shocked expression quickly changed into one that was obviously not amused with Jaden's act. "Go home!" He attempted to yell over the sound of Jaden's hearty, near infectious laughter.

"I can't go home. You'd miss me too much!" Jaden smiled at Chazz, his happiness never wavering even as Chazz turned his back on him.

"No I wouldn't!" Chazz quickly responded as he continued to stare off in the opposite direction of the one he was talking to. "I'd actually--"

The sound of the telephone ringing interrupted their conversation, it's sudden loud tone catching the two off guard. With the second ring of the phone came the low exhales of the two boys still in bed, and with the third ring came Jaden's body stretching over Chazz's legs to answer the phone on the floor.

"Hello?" Jaden answered as he casaually relaxed his weight on top of Chazz's legs.

"What are you doing? Move it!" Chazz tried to raise any one of his legs so that he could kick Jaden off of his bed, but found that his legs were not comming free.

"Hey Alexis! What's up?" Jaden talked into the phone as he tried to wiggle into a more comfortable position on Chazz's legs."No, you have the right number. I just spent the night over here at Chazz's place." Jaden was silent for a brief moment as Alexis was talking to him. Within that brief moment, Chazz watched as Jaden's happy expression darkened. "Yeah, I know that this is the third night this week." He responeded in a low, flat tone of voice. "But," Jaden spoke again with renewed spark, "that's fine because Chazz wants me here!"

Chazz crossed his arms over his chest and turned his head to the side with an undeniable scoff of distain and a low "Yeah right".

"Huh? No, that wasn't Chazz disagreeing," Jaden waved off Chazz's backround comment before he continued his conversation with Alexis. "So, what were you saying?"

Chazz didn't pay much attention to the conversation being held across his legs on his telephone, but rather, his attention was focused on the person on the other end of the line. With a low sigh, Chazz's thoughts lead him away in its wavy embrace.

Alexis. Her full name: Alexis Rhodes. To even think of her name caused something inside Chazz to stir with anger and sadness, pushing the feelings of longing for her deeper into the pit of life that was the past. It didn't seem as though it were that long ago - that day when Alexis had told him that Zane and her were a couple.

Chazz's arms fell slowly to his sides, the cool top of his covers reminding him that he wasn't in the past listening to Alexis's words, but that he was in the present in his bed. Still, even with the silent reminder, Chazz's heart felt heavy. Mentally the words were being spoken to him as they were on the day he heard them:

_"We're a couple! Zane and I- We're in love!"_

Chazz glared at the wall, misdirecting his rage and sadness. _Why can't I bury this?_ Chazz thought with agrivation, his fist gripping his covers tightly. _I should be over this! I _am_ over this!_ He decided, forcing himself once again to believe what he knew wasn't true. Well, 'lie' is the middle of the word 'believe'. Perhaps if he kept up the lie, he would come to believe his own words.

"What'd she say?" Chazz asked Jaden as Jaden stretched over to hang up the phone.

"She wanted to know if we could all hang out today since no one's busy." Jaden spoke as he hung up the phone and rolled off of Chazz and on the floor. "I told her we could. We're all meeting at the fountain in the middle of the city."

_I'll have to see her today..._ "Thanks alot," Chazz replied sarcastically as he flung the covers off of his body and stood. Quickly, Chazz walked out of his bedroom and slammed the door behind him.

"Okay..." Jaden stared at the closed door, "What did I do?"

* * *

The sound of water splashing echoed in his ears, the many different layers of water giving off its own unique splash pattern. It was a relaxing sort of sound, the many layers catching the previous drops of water and then, with its own elegance, pouring the water down until it reached the bottom layer and coated the wishes and hopes of others who dropped coins in it as a symbol of hope. Silver and copper lined the bottom of the inside of the final pool of water, giving more beauty to the marble feature which united the many different settings of the enviornment around them. The many different people and the many different displays of life all connected by the glistening water and strong form of the light marble water fountain.

It almost made him smile; the many ways in which everyone is connected. This was why he enjoyed the water element. He was able to relax his mind and think in a more in depth fashion about his life and the lives of those around him.

"Are you going to toss the coin in or are you going to hold on to it?" Alexis asked her boyfriend, Zane, as she watched him hold his hand open and position a coin to flip, yet continued to stare into the clear water.

Zane continued to stare at the water for a few seconds before he directed his attention towards Alexis. He didn't say a word to her, but gave her a small smile, his dark blue eyes crinkling slightly in an adorable fashion that caused Alexis to blush.

"Are we interrupting something?" The sound of Jaden's voice cut through the silent spoken words passing through between Zane and Alexis.

"No," Alexis answered quickly, turning her head away from Zane's direction.

Chazz watched silently as Syrus ran into Jaden's arms and the two hugged, and he watched as Alexis walked next to Zane and talked. The tall, dark blue haired boy like a deep cool ocean of water and the girl with hair of light brown like milk chocolate stood next to eachother, their fingers laced together with elegance that depicted the love between the two- unbreakable. Chazz watched as Alexis leaned her head on Syrus's older brother's shoulder, her brown eyes never leaving the face of her taller and slightly paler boyfriend. In his eyes, their bodies almost looked as though they were made to fit one another, like the pieces in a puzzle. Her curved shape molded in with the slight curves of Zane's toned body, the colors of Zane's blue long sleeved shirt covered by a half cut white denim jacket and dark blue denim jeans matching beautifully with Alexis's light blue and navy striped tight short sleeved shirt covering a loose long sleeved white shirt and her white denim skirt almost serving as a photo of their compatability. Even their limiters were the same; the two wearing golden magical limiters across their foreheads that shone even through the bangs of brown and dark blue.

Chazz winced and turned his head towards Jaden and Syrus. His eyes may have been watching the exchange between the two shorter boys, but his mind was still muddled by angry thoughts of the relationship between Zane and Alexis. No, he wasn't angry at the two for being in a loving relationship... well, maybe a little, but he was mainly mad at himself and his inability to cope with the new, yet farily old, situation. The two had been together for over some time, yet he still could not convince himself to let it go.

Chazz crossed his arms over his black short sleeved clad chest as his resistance tactic to not hug himself tightly like he wanted. He had done a good job of lying straight to Alexis's face when he had told her that he was happy for her and Zane, and he wasn't about to let the lie be messed up now. If he said he was... happy... then he was going to continue to lie to himself until he believed it to be true.

Sometimes love, even the unrequitted kind, made you do stupid things...

Chazz exhaled softly as he attempted to snap out of his own world by watching Jaden and Syrus laugh and talk and joke around. Jaden and Syrus were sitting on a bench and talking to eachother, their eyes lit with what Chazz would have to say was love. Syrus wore a black turtleneck longsleeved shirt and dark green jeans while Jaden wore a pair of jeans with a hole in one knee and a dark red short sleeve shirt that he'd left over at Chazz's house, 'Emergency Clothes' should he spend the night over at Chazz's - which he had done just the night before. The matching of their clothes wasn't as obvious as Zane and Alexis's, but there were... well, there was _something_ there besides the obvious actions that made it easy to see that the two were a couple. Even their limiters, though Jaden's was wrapped around the top of his arm a short distance from his shoulder and Syrus's was on his wrist, seemed to have formed some sort of odd harmony.

Chazz rolled his eyes at his sight while he idly wondered if it were possible for couples to actually relay their own unique atmosphere's to other people. It seemed so, but then again he really wouldn't know...

Chazz almost decided to leave the two groups of couples. He wouldn't do it abruptly, just slowly and quietly while vaguely wondering if he was even noticed leaving or not. Hopefully he wouldn't be spotted though, because he didn't want to have to explain why he left. He felt uncomfortable around those four - like he was out of place or something. He felt like a square in a room of circles, he could hold any one of them if he wanted, but he could never fit into the crowd. Perhaps he was happy this way?

"So what do you want to do?" Alexis asked the others in the group of friends, snapping Jaden and Syrus from their own conversation and Chazz from his own thoughts. "We could just wander around town and see if we could find something... " She suggested after her question was greeted with nothing but blank stares and silence.

"Or you could go see the newest discovery of our history at the museum not to far from here," A new voice spoke, the tone hauntingly eerie to all five of the teens the words were directed to. Upon observance, however, the person speaking wasn't exactly 'new', but rather just the voice of a person none of the teens had known all that well, if at all. He was only heard of in stories told to them by parents, strangers, and elder sibilings that have already had limiters.

"My apologies for the rude intrusion. My name is Satorious." Satorious introduced himself with an arm over his chest and a slow short bow.

"Wait! _The_ Satorious?" Jaden asked with shock, his brown eyes widening conciderably as the tall, thin man before his stood to his full height, the corners of the pale man's lips turned upward in a small, almost non-existant smile. "The same Satorious that is supposed to have lived for... uh... a really, _really_ long time?"

"Yes, Jaden," Satorious answered with a noticable smile on his face. His lips were smiling, but those purple eyes that never seemed to have left Chazz's own dark ones didn't seem to reflect the affectionate feelings he used as he talked to Jaden. The eyes that watched Chazz seemed percing. They delved deeper into his being than any sharp object could take a stab at, ripping deeper and deeper into his soul and searching... laughing at him and his helplessness to stop this non-touch molestation.

Quickly Chazz turned his head, his eyes not able to continue to stare at the talking man anymore. There was just something off about Satorious, but Chazz could not identify exactly what it was. The man's constantly white clothing? The man's pale white skin? No. It was none of those. Nothing that superficial could have merited such feelings from Chazz. No, it was Satorious's eyes. Those purple eyes that were lengendary; the eyes that were told to have the ability to read into the near and distant future. Could they possibly see into his soul? Read his mind?

_Don't be stupid!_ Chazz thought, chiding himself for his out of control thought process, _He can't do anything like that!_

"Can't I?" Chazz turned to face Satorious with wide eyes and parted lips. Had he just read his mind.

"No, I didn't read your mind, Mr. Priceton. Your disbelief was written on your face just as clearly as it was in your voice the day you turned me away at the limitation ceremony." Satorious smiriked as he spoted the beautiful golden jewelry that donned Chazz's neck in the design of a common necklace. "But I see that you do have a limiter. Did you recieve that from my friend, Aster?"

Chazz glared at Satorious heatedly, wanting the man to vanish from his sight.

"Tell me Chazz, how do you have a limiter if you didn't take it from me? And also... " Satorious's eyes slid down Chazz's exposed arms but stopped when he noticed the sweatbands and chains wrapped in fashion around Chazz's wrist.

"Go away," Chazz verbalized his thoughts in a harsh manner that displayed how much he wanted the other man to do as he was thinking. He uncrossed his arms and planted them on his hips in an almost bashful manner, or in the same context of a guilty child.

"You're right," Satorious smiled, tilting his head to one side slightly as though he were a kid, "I really should let you go and find your friends, shouldn't I?"

He looked to his left and to his right. True to Satorious's words, Alexis, Jaden, Zane, and Syrus were no where to be seen. Chazz looked in and pass the random crowds of people and the many people scattered about in the distance, but he could not see any trace of his friends.

"I guess that I held you back. They probably thought that you were right behind them, yet here you are with me. But don't get mad at them, this was all my fault. I'm the one that held you back." Satorious waved his hand in a casual manner at he turned his back towards Chazz and began to slowly walk away. "I'm sure that they're on their way to the museum." Satorious called back to the annoyed black haired teen, a smile on his face and laughter in his words, as if he were laughing at his own private joke. "Just don't get distracted and you'll be there in no time. There's something of vital importance that you have to see." Satorious walked away, small volumes of laughter carried by the blowing wind.

Chazz rolled his eyes at the older man's words, the idea of sitting on a bench and just waiting for the others to come back becoming more appealing than the museum simply because he'd been advised to check it out.

But what was it that was so important that someone like Satorious would advise a person to go see it? Wouldn't the discovery be broadcasted to the public anyway, and the desire to go to the museum be, in a sense, fulfilled? That is what bothered Chazz the most, and what was the main reason for him to actually turn around and begin his walk towards the new discovery.

That is, if he hadn't walked down a wrong, abandoned street while thinking, turned around with the intent to walk in the correct direction but crashed into someone, landing directly on top of them in the process.

"Hey!"

"What the--?!"

In the short distance from his feet to the ground, or rather chest of the person he'd fallen on, Chazz had closed his eyes. When his eyes opened, however, Chazz was greeted with the sight of a teen whom he was constantly beginning to see.

"Chazz?"

"Bastion? What are you doing?"

"I think that I should be the one to ask that question."

"What are you doing here?"

"Can we talk after we are off of the ground, or rather, when _you're_ off of me and _I'm_ not on the ground?" Bastion asked Chazz, slightly irratated by the situation, but mostly embarassed by the position.

Chazz blinked twice as he stared down at Bastion, his mind slowly reeling as if he was not completely understanding what was going on.

Bastion was on the ground beneath him, his body trapped between Chazz's own open black pant covered legs. His hair was slightly mussed from the wind and the impact, outlining his face and bringing into attention the blush that was on his cheeks. The slightly tight materal of Bastion's gray shirt held with some freedom against the upper part of Bastion's chest, but the loose ending of the shirt rose, exposing the well toned flesh to dark eyes. When Chazz shifted, even though it was a slight movement, the top of Bastion's khaki pants slid down ever slightly, not enough to expose, but enough to know that they had fallen a little from where they were supposed to be.

"Chazz?" Bastion looked into the adressed boy's face, noticing the instant blush that crept on Chazz's face.

Chazz quickly pulled himself off of Bastion and stood on his own feet, his eyes unable to look directly at Bastion.

"I apologize," Bastion said as he stood up fro the ground and dusted off the back of his pants. "I wasn't watching where I was going." Bastion continued to speak as he bent over to grab the objects that had fallen out of the bag he was carring when he and Chazz collided.

"Whatever," Chazz blushed and helped Bastion pick up the random packages and vegitation that had fallen. He knew that the fall wasn't Bastion's fault, and knew that Bastion knew, but he wasn't about to admit to such an embarassing thing. Nor was he going to admit to having ever been in such a stiuation - falling and stradling an almost complete stranger. "Here you go," Chazz handed Bastion the handfull of what he had recovered from the ground and dropped them into the open bag.

"Thank you," Bastion replied, tying the bag in a knot so as to not loose any more items, or just in case there was another random incident that caused him to lose grip of his groceries. He certainly hoped that there wouldn't be. "Why are you out this way?"

"What?" Chazz blushed, taken by suprise by the question. Why was he out here? Because he wasn't paying attention and got lost. Would he admit to that? "No, I asked you first. What are _you_ doing out this way?"

No.

"I was on my way home when I decided to check out the museum. I decided that this would be a short cut to my destination so here I am." Bastion shrugged nonchalontly. "You?"

"Same reason," Chazz answered casually even though he continued to blush.

"Well then, shall we continue?" Bastion offered with a nod of his head in the direction they were to walk, taking the lead by a few steps.

Chazz followed closly behind Bastion for no particular reason. He just felt like he needed to be close to him. It felt like the two had traveled together long ago, and this was just like their reconnection or something. It felt... odd. The fact that the two were walking this close, if at all, was a put off for Chazz, but for some reason butterflies flapped rapidly in his stomach and his body wouldn't stop trembling. He felt like a person about to recieve a suprise, going on with whatever was happening while silently and anxiously waiting for something special to happen. Chazz could not think of anything special that he would like to happen or be given to him from Bastion, so he really couldn't justify why he felt the way he felt. It didn't make sense.

"Chazz?"

"What?" Chazz rose his eyes from the ground to the back of Bastion's head, half expecting Bastion to turn and look at him.

"What did you mean when you said... " Bastion paused in his words and steps for half a second before continuing both. "What did you mean when you said that I put you in a frustrated mood?"

"Eh?" Chazz uncerimoniously breathed out, his eyebrows raised high, the blush he fought so hard to be rid of returning. "What did I mean?" He had to repeat the question in order to completely register what was being asked of him to answer partly because of his own unwillingness to listen and partly because he couldn't believe that such a question was being asked.

"Yes," Bastion stopped walking, the only sound now heard being the soft, slow taps of Chazz's shoe on the ground and the wind.

Chazz glared at Bastion, more than a little angry at the question he was being asked. Not only was it annoying, but also embarassing and confusing. Chazz knew what he meant when he said those words, but the confusion was in the fact that those words were spoken. Chazz didn't remember exactly saying that he got... frustrated... around Bastion, he just remembered that it was said.

"What do you think?" Chazz answered with an irratated tone of voice. He wasn't so much irratated as he was embarassed but it still felt like Bastion was adding insult to injury.

He didn't stop for Bastion to actually answer the question, however, but continued to walk the distance towards the museum. Idily, Chazz began to wonder if he was walking very slowly, or if the alleyway was longer than any other.

"Chazz," Said boy jumped at the sudden contact, unaware that Bastion had caught up to him. "I'm sorry. It doesn't matter what you meant."

"Got that right," Chazz nodded his head in reply, silently relieved that the situation was over.

"I just wanted to get the air clear before school begins," Bastion and Chazz continued to walk. For some reason, the sun seemed brighter when the two finally stepped back onto a main street.

Cars and people were in abundance, reporters and camera crews stood outside the museum taking pictures and talking loudly in an attempt to get answers from the owner of the museum and those people that had witnessed the glory of whatever it was that was discovered about the time of long ago in Domino. People crowded the sidewalks and flooded the streets, all with the same goal in mind: see the latest discovery.

Chazz, however, stood close to Bastion with a different type of goal in mind.

"What's going to happen at school?" Chazz had to raise his voice for Bastion to hear. He recieved no reply form the other, but it was highly possible that Bastion couldn't hear him over the load roaring of cars and people in the immediate area. If onl he had a moment of silence-

"Ow!" Chazz growled as some passerby bumped into his and caused him to bump into Bastion. This time, luckily, no one fell. He doubted that if they did fall, they wouldn't be able to stand up until the riot was over. "Watch it!" Chazz yelled at more people in the crowd, people that had already been at the museum and plenty of newcomers to the scene seemed to gravitate to Chazz and Bastion.

It felt uncomfortable and hot, loud and intolerable. The world seemed to close in on Chazz and push him and Bastion closer and closer together.

"There you are!" The unmistakably loud voice of Jaden reached Chazz and Bastion's ears and the sight of the brunette holding the hand of his boyfriend and leading him through the crowd, followed closley by Zane and Alexis. "Where were you? We've been looking all over!" Jaden paused for a second before smiling in an almost devious manner at Chazz. "Is he why you left?" Jaden yelled as he teased Chazz, the hints at the deper meaning to Jaden's words wider than the grand canyon.

"He's not my boyfriend!" Chazz yelled back at Jaden, a slight blush on his face.

"Your boyfriend?" Alexis repeated, obviously not hearing the first part because of the crowd.

"Congratulations!" Syrus cheered for Chazz and gave a small peace sign for celebration though there really was nothing to celebrate.

"No! I'm not like you!" Chazz yelled back.

"Hey!" Jaden yelled at Chazz as he pulled Syrus closer to him with unneeded help from the everclosing audience. "Like Bastion, not Sy! He's mine!"

"Are you stupid or something?! That's not what I said!" Chazz shouted back, but shook his head and exhaled as he realized that his words fell into the loud mass of people and on deaf ears. Well that was something he'd have to straighten out later on.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" A man with a loudspeaker announced from atop the tall building, "I regret to inform you all..."

* * *

"Well that was a waste of a weekend," Chazz commented as he and Jaden walked down the empty halls of the Academy. The bell to go home had rang possibly an hour ago, but Jaden and Chazz had to stay for detention for, once again, sleeping on the roof. Of course this time it wasn't Bastion that had been sent to bring them to class, but rather some random officer that neither one of the two had seen before. He saw the two on the roof, Jaden laying on top of Chazz once again for some reason, and instantly assumed that something else was going on. If it weren't for Chazz, well, being himself, they could havepossibly been in worst trouble than a few hours for a few days after school.

"I know," Jaden agreed with a nod as he adjusted his red and black backpack on his shoulders, "The museum had to close early because someone messed it up. The only good part was getting to meet your boyfriend."

"I already told you that he's not--"

"Chazz Princeton?" One of the subject teachers, math teacher as Chazz recalled, ended Chazz's sentence by calling his name. "Can I see you for a minute?" She asked shortly before she turned around and walked into her classromm, leaving the door open so that Chazz could follow her.

"Want me to wait for you?" Jaden asked as he watched his angry friend walk into the class.

"Don't bother," Chazz waved Jaden a curt goodbye. "I bet she's gonna drag this out. Just go."

"Okay! See ya later!" Jaden smiled and waved before racing towards the door. If he didn't have to be in school at the moment, then he wasn't going to stay any longer.

Chazz exhaled deeply as he closed the classroom door behind him, wishing for some sort of distraction or something to end this student-teacher meeting. Well, he didn't exactly have to come in the room now that he thought about it. The teacher had asked, not demanded (and if she had he would have called he attention and walked out in her face).

"Would you like a seat?" The teacher asked Chazz. Upon reciving no reply from the teen, however, she continued. "I assume you know why you're here?"

Chazz exhaled and crossed his arms over his chest. "Yeah. Slipping math grades."

"As long as you understand. Mr. Princeton," The teacher stood from her desk and began to walk towards the back of her classroom, her green eyes never leaving Chazz's form leaned against her room door with his arms crossed. "We cannot allow this to continue. You're a good student, I know that. You recieve such high praise in any other class, even in training, but for some reason it all stops when Math class comes into play. They all ask me how you're doing in math and I have nothing more to say other than 'well, at least he come to class', but now even that right is diminishing!"

Chazz rolled his eyes behind his eyelids. All he wanted was for this stupid conversation to be over and done with.

"That is why I am assigning you a tutor." She finished with a smile.

"W-What?" Chazz exclaimed, his attutide now anything but happy. He pushed himself off of the door and uncrossed his arms. "I don't need a tutor!"

"I'm sure that you do not," The teacher went on to explain, "but until you, your grades, and aparently your attitude towards me and this class improve, you will have a tutor. He and I will be the judges in the end in determining whether you pass or you fail."

Chazz glared at the teacher as she stopped walking and stood still. She held her arm out in front of a student seated at his desk.

"Hello once again, Chazz."

Chazz's eyes widened in shock, his face and stance showing the disbelief Chazz had towards his current situation.

"Please meet your new tutor, Mr. Princeton. His name is--"

"Bastion?!"


	7. Chapter Seven : Nightmare

SlippingSanity: Here you all go! I am so sorry this is way, way late, but I've been really busyand distracted and... well, I really have no excuse. Feel free to yell at me if need be. I hope you enjoy this long chapter!

**Warning: This chapter contains some graphic images of bloodshed. Please read this and keep this in mind as you read this chapter. Thank you. Also, towards the end, the story switches between what Bastion sees and what Chazz sees. Just letting you know to prevent confusion. XD**

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh GX, nor do I own any of its characters. I am only borrowing them for this plot, and make no money from this. Yugioh Gx belongs to Kazuki Takahashi and to the many others that contributed to the GX creation. I take no credit, I am simply borrowing the characters for the plotline.

* * *

Chapter Seven

_Scarlet Rings: Nightmare_

Nightmare: Trerrifying or oppressive dream characterized by a sense of helplessness in the face of danger, extreme uneasiness or discomfort or extreme anxiety, from which one wakes in a troubled state of mind.

Tap... tap... tap...

Tock... tic... tock...

Tap... tap... tap...

His eyes burned holes into the ceiling with his fierce glare of distain towards his "tutoring" situation. Because of such a, as Chazz viewed it, degrading situation, he was not at his place in his luxurious room, but rather he was in a common in the home that was Bastion's. Bastion had given Chazz a tour of the house for reasons that excaped Chazz, and Chazz had decided that the house wasn't "bad" per se, it just wasn't "good". Two floors, three bedrooms and two bathrooms, big kitchen and front yard and back yard. Yes, not a bad house, just not to "his liking" (Chazz had voiced his opinions about Bastion's place, something to which Bastion spent time explaining how different people had different tastes.).

_Whatever_, Chazz decided with a firm shake of his head. _Its not like I'm gonna be here forever, anyway!_

No, Chazz wasn't going to be at Bastion's house forever. He'd just be going to Bastion's house (because ther was no way he was going to let it slip to his brothers that he "needed" a tutor) until his teacher believed him to be improving.

Chazz snorted, dropping the mechanical pencil he was using to tap on the coffeetable, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back on the couch.

Why did he need to study like this? Why _should_ he? Like he had said to her face, the Chazz didn't need help in math, nor anything for that matter. Chazz was his own force, and did not require aid or backup.

Thick lashes met as Chazz closed his eyes to the ceiling far above his head.

His teacher would see how great he was if she wasn't such a bit-

"I'd rather you didn't think ill towards one of my teachers."

"What are you, psychic?" Chazz opened one of his eyes and watched as Bastion placed some drinks and light snacks on the coffee table next to him.

Bastion shook his head as he sat down on the couch, raising Chazz's legs off of the couch in order to sit down. Apparently, this was an action Chazz had not taken lightly, as the black-haired teen just rose his legs and layed them over Bastion's thighs.

"No," Bastion shook his head, "but I find that it's rather common that if a child doesn't like a situation, they will think badly about it and those who are often acting in the child's best intrest."

"Are you calling me a child?!" Chazz pushed himself up on his elbows and glared heatedly. Where did he get off saying such a thing? He, Chazz, a child? Not likely!

"No," Bastion shook his head once again as he reached for a carton of juice that he had set on the table, "I was only stating what I thought. Whether or not you are a child didn't matter in the statement, only the statement itself was relevent."

Chazz continued to glare at Bastion, though the feeling was somewhat lost due to the yawning Chazz did, despite his attempts not to.

"Now, let's start the session," Bastion breathed as he brought a textbook into view. "or we could take a short rest... " Bastion added when Chazz turned to his side and closed his eyes with furrowed brows. "Chazz?"

The taller teen recieved no reply from the other, as the other had already fallen asleep.

* * *

Thick gray clouds of smoke flew around his, darkening the tall palace walls he had penetrated not so long ago. Doors were torn from their hinges with their handles twisted into spirals, beautifully crafted stained glass now shone their beauty in the many shards that littered the ground and the palace's floors. Burnings were set ablaze, the panicfilled screams echoing about in his ears as he smirked.

If this was the chaos he had created on the inside of the palace itself, then he really wished that he had stood outside to enjoy his work. But, he concluded, now was not the time to think of such things.

His smirk increased, the flames nearby giving his fanged smirk a preditory gleam like.

No, he wouldn't think of such things, especially since he was having the time of his life in his current position.

In the uppermost point of the the palace, beyond the wooden doors barely clinging to the wall, in the light of the fading red sun that shown through the shattered window and shreaded burgandy curtans flapping uncerimoniously in the cool air, were two figures. One of the figures was a slender male with black hair, strands of his wildly styled hair clinging to him as he sweated. His breathing was ragged, his shoulders rising and falling as air entered and left his lungs. Fresh, warm blood covered his hands from the end to the palms to the tip of the sharp nails and dripped into small puddles at his sides. His body felt tired, his muscles screamed to be relaxed, his flesh was torn in places that those who were brave enough had charged at him and, through luck or his own distracted and sluggish movements, landed a blow before dying by his hands. His feet dragged slightly as he took slow steps with a slight hunch in his back, but the look in the other occupants eyes was all worth it.

Long chestnut hair pooled around her body and curled into many silky ponds on the floor beneath her. Her skin was pale and thinly layered in sweat that glistened in an almost unearthly manner, her brown eyes wide and shaking with fear. The woman's body was draped in the finest cloths in all of her inherited land, yet the layers could not hide the trembling of her body as she sat on the floor, defenseless. She hadn't gone down easily, no, for she was the ruler and her land's last line and ultimate defense. She, the woman, Alezeia, had exhausted not only herself, but him, this demon, as well, leaving only the will for bloodshed and the will for protection to battle out for survival. Even now, as she sat on hands and knees with exhaust and fright, she continued to battle for her life and the lives of the people.

"Ahh... Alezeia," The black haired murder purred, drawing out each word with a breathless sigh as he stoped his advances and stood menacingly, albiet weak and tired, above the queen. "Is this your fate?" He smirked as he held up his left hand, shuddering as he felt the power he summoned begin to prick at his tired body. His crimson eyes closed and he rose his head towards the ceiling. "Is this how you're going to die? Will no one help you? Isn't your husband going to save you? Are you too weak to protect yourself, your family, your friends, your land?" One blood red eye opened and met with two glaring brown eyes. "Tell me, dear. Are those thoughts running through your mind at this very moment?"

Alezeia glared at the form of the smug, bloodridden man while her insides shook in fear. She shook her head, moreso for herself than for his answer. She would not give in! She would get up and fight this abomination unto the land with every ounce of what was in her!

"No?" He asked, tilting his to the side in the manner of a confused child.

"Not at all," Alezeia replied with a loud groan as she began to rise to her full height, but her tired legs would only allow her so far. She inhaled sharply and let the breath come out in a long rush of air, then, through the sweat and blood drenched silky brown hair that slid from behind her golden, blood stained crown. "Are they going through yours?" She asked, raising her head with a smirk.

"What do you mean?" Crimson eyes widened at the abrupt throw of words. Why would she say such a thing to him anyway?

"I mean," Alezeia stood strongly on her two legs, "are you worried about him? The one you love?"

A blur. That was all that could be used to describe what Alezeia saw before her back hit the wall of her palace causing rivers of pain to flow up and down her spine and ribs. She arched her neck in pain, her eyes watering as her mouth opened in a mute scream.

"What possesses you to ask that?" He asked, his claws digging into Alezeia's chest and running slowly downward. His eyes were calm, a forced calm that could have been noticed by even the naive. "What makes you think that I have someone I... I love?" He spoke the word "love" in a high voice, as though it were something highly unbelieveable or unheard of.

"I hadn't... believed it myself..." Alezeia wheezed as her throat was now being gripped. The grip was loose, but the feel of his hands on her neck was more than enough to cause a hitch in her breathing pattern. "... but I found the evidence." She stiffened and steeled her eyes into the hardest glare she could muster. Her fingers twitched with fear and loose magic as she opened her mouth to speak. "Demon," her tone was steady, strong, and loud like announcing a decree, "you lover is dead!"

The words were spoken, and not a second later Alezeia could feel the grip tightening on her throat. She gasped and scratched at the hand, her body kicking with determination to be free of the choke.

"What did you say...? " Alezeia heard him whisper in disbelief as he continued to choke her. "So, he's dead?" Black hair ruffled as he shook his head from side to side. "No, no, he can't be. We were going to be... He just can't be dead." He brought his and Alezia's face only inches apart. "He's really dead?" He asked with wide eyes and body shaking with shock.

"He is," Alezeia breathed out with a thick tongue and clouded eyes.

He threw the queen harshly on the floor and took a few steps away from her, his body trembling and joints stiff with the need to collapse. He held his head at the sides and shook it while rocking back and forth on his heels, his eyes wide and pupils shaking. His mouth opened to speak, but nothing came forth. He wanted to cry, but not one tear would come to his eye. He wanted to breakdown, but his pride refused to let him do such a thing. _Not here. Not now..._

A loud scream echoed throughout all of Alezeia, the scream of frustration and anger bound together by a tight coil of sadness and loneliness tearing into the ears and hearts of many.

"You!" He yelled with a feral growl as he caught sight of the queen at his feet. "You did this!"

He pounced on her with a shout, pressing her head down to the cold floor. He cursed her name and rose her head to slam in down on the hard surface. Alexeia screamed and attempted to fight back through the pain as the thing on her continued to shout and curse and howl as he caused her pain. Alezeia gagged as she felt a piercing into her chest and the pain of her flesh ripping as the nails raked down.

"Is he in here?" The man spoke delusions, his eyes focusing on the red blood he was dragging out of Alezeia. "You didn't kill him because you know what he means to me," He shook his head in disbelief and swiped over Alezeia, snatching up her front attire and leaving four red lines in his wake. "No, you didn't." He whispered softy as he bent over onto Alezeia's bare chest and listened to her heartbeat. "He's in here, isn't he?" He smiled with his own twisted, make believe calm.

Alezeia stiffened and breathed heavily, her eyes barely open and ber body twitching with pain and cold. Her fist clenched at her sides, her pulse practically drumming against the floor as she tired to summon up something, anything, to help her defend herself. Her eyes closed tightly, tears forming in the corners of her lashes as she concentrated through the fear the body above her own was feeding her.

"I don't want him in here," The man whispered and sat up, his red eyes glittering with moisture as though her were about to cry tears of relief.. One clawed finger traced from the end of the neck and down to the belly button, teasing the exposed, cold sweat covered, creamy flesh of the queen. "It's foul in there. It reaks of purity." He spoke. A smirk crossed his face, the smirk forming into a deranged fanged smile and calm eyes remaining. "I'll save you! I'll save you! We can be together!" He shouted as he rose both hands in the air.

Alezeia's eyes opened widely as his arms rose, sharp ends pointed at her body poised to strike.

Blood shot out as nails dug into Alezeia's flesh from her left and right sides then ripped upward, leaving her screaming as the nails ripped open her sides and snatched away some skin and fat. Red liquid began its rapid formation of a tainted ocean.

"I'll save you!" He yelled as he clawed into Alezeia, laughing as the blood and flesh stuck to his nails. He laughed with wide, deranged eyes a the deep, disturbing sound of his claws plunging into flesh. He laughed at the tight feeling of the stretching skin fighting back to stay attached before being mercilessly ripped from the body with a deep, maddening rip and odd levels of spattering blood that reached from the newly disconnected slab of flesh to the floor, to the walls, or even to the roof.. He laughed manically as Alezeia's screams slowly became a distant echo in the walls, and her body's twitching began to subside into the stillness that comes with death.

Ruby eyes danced as he dug deeper into her, his nails tearing through the red and thin white striped tight musle with diffuculty. He rose his arms and stabbed into the exposed muscle repeatedly, enjoying the way the blood splirted from his actions. His eyes scanned with delight at the tight red muscle, the wet yellow fat, the moist innards that were exposed to the air and sliced in different places.

"Don't worry, love! I'll taint you again!" He laughed evilly as he slid off of Alezeia's open, bleeding chest. "Don't worry," He bent down to the side of Alezeia's body and whispered to the blood laced ribs, bleeding chunky muscle and slashed innards, "I won't claw you out." His mouth opened wide and his tongue watered as he bent his head down into the muscle. He moaned as he took a bite of the thick, red and bloody mass coated with random chunks of yellow fat. "I'll devour you," He gripped some of the ribs in his way and pulled at the caging bone. He continued to pull, the snapping and popping of the now disconnected protective bones screaming in his ears before he threw them aside carelessly. A moan came from his throat as he bit down into the bleeding mass, ripping the muscles and a chunk of innard from her body and spitting it out with a sickening spat on the floor next to him. Blood ran down his lip and chin as he scanned the body for what he was looking for.

"I don't see you," He spoke calmly as he gripped and broke more of the queen's bones, "But I'll keep looking." He bit down and rose his head, fighting the resistance and spitting out the unwanted mass before returning in his insane search.

"I'll devour you." He purred, "I'll take you in me. We'll be together forever..."

He moaned as he opened his mouth wide and bit into the body, blood coating his tongue and mouth and dripping down his chin...

* * *

Chazz rose in a rush from the couch he had fallen asleep on and into the bathroom. He quickly collapsed to his knees and emptied his stomach, the nightmare still as fresh in his mind as if he were still asleep. He could still feel the body thrashing wildly under him and the flesh on his fingertips...

Chazz groaned as more food was forced out of his body, his stomach turning.

"Chazz," someone called his name from behind him, "here. When you think that you are stable, I want you to face me. I have some pills that should stop the vomiting."

The black-haired teen threw himself at the other person bent down on his knees behind him, his mind registering the teen to be Bastion, and opened his mouth.

"Are you sure you're done?" Bastion asked with concern holding the pill and glass of water in one hand and holding the white, trembling and sick Chazz Princeton in the opposite arm.

Chazz rose his trembling arms and brought the hand with the pill towards his mouth. He didn't know if he was done vomiting, and he didn't care if he wasn't. If that pill was going to put an end to the embarassing and uncharacteristic action, then the Chazz was going to take that pill!

With a growl, Chazz snatched the pill with his teeth (fighting back the urge to vomit as that action had brought back scenes from the nightmare) and the glass of water and swallowed the pill. He gulped down every drop of the water and slammed the glass to the floor, not hard enough to break the glass, but with as much determination not to break the fragile cup that he was able to give at the current moment.

Bastion blinked in shock and suprise as Chazz fell mostly limp into his arms, his body shaking as though he were cold beneath his black trench coat. The shorter teen's breath was comming in hard and labored and leaving in deep sighs that could have been marked as sighs of a sort of relief. Chazz's skin was so pale it was almost white, and his eyes which were looking at his chest remained unseeing as they shook violently.

"Chazz, what's wrong?"

Chazz said no reply to the words he heard. He recognized the voice as belonging to Bastion Misawa, his newly appointed math tutor. He understood the question and the fact that the worried taller teen wanted an answer, and Chazz would have given the teen his own brand of an answer...

... if only he weren't so confused and in a state of horrified shock at the sight of his crush, Alexis Rhodes, ripped open, dismembered and bleeding underneath him.

Bastion held on to Chazz's shoulders, shaking the teen lightly and calling his name as Chazz screamed at something he could not see.

Chazz stared at his hands, stared with increasing panic at the blood of the dead teenage girl that stained his fingers. He turned his head to the side as he felt the bile rise from his throat and splash on the pure white floor next to him.

"What the... ?!" Chazz whispered at the red that had come from his mouth. He shivered and clenched his eyes shut as he turned his head. He couldn't explain how he knew, but he had a feeling that he was vomiting Alexis's life's blood.

"Chazz! Chazz!" Bastion's voice was raised in fear as he shook said boy, his fear keeping him on the bathroom floor with the thrashing teen though his mind screamed for him to do the logical thing and call for help.

"Chazz... Chazz... " the dead form of Alexis Rhodes whispered, her face contorted with anger and pain as she glared with tear-ridden eyes. "Chazz... you... "

"A-Alexis?" Chazz's voice was choked and forced. _What's going on?!_

"You... " She breathed somehow as blood spat from her mouth and stained her lips. "You're the de-- !"

Chazz hadn't notice how his left arm had been moving on his own as the dead body talked, but it was quickly brought to his attention as the arm came down from its raised position with a ball of red magic aiming for the exposed and displaced innards of the girl he had yet to get over his feelings for.

His left arm, acting on its own accord, slammed the ball of red energy in the slippery, mushy, cold mass, some blood spattering over his face because of the act. Chazz watched wide eyed as Alexis's head tilted off of the ground and fall back painfully, her body twisting and thrashing and--

"Go to sleep," a voice Chazz could have possibly heard before spoke to him in a demanding tone, and as those words ended, so did his breathing and the sick, twisted world that surrounded him.

"Chazz?" Bastion held the teen who so abruptly ended his episode with a fall out into his chest. "I've got to get help," Bastion voiced aloud to himself as he braced himself to stand with Chazz in his arms.

"No." Chazz's voice stopped him, the grip on Bastion's shirt increasing into almost a tight pull closer. "I don't need help."

"What are you saying?" Bastion asked in disbelief. One did not go from sleeping, to vomiting, to screaming, to passing out and claim to not need help. It was illogical and, quite frankly, highly unbelieveable. "I'm going to get help." Bastion held on to Chazz's wrists and tried to pull, ignoring an odd chill that ran throughout his entire body. For reasons that felt beyond him, Bastion felt himself fighting a pull into Chazz like a swimmer does a stong wave. He felt as though he wanted to give into it, but felt the danger of the action.

With a small gasp, Bastion let go of Chazz's unrelenting arms.

"You felt it, didn't you?" Chazz whispered as he wrapped his arms around Bastion's chest.

"What?" Bastion replied, not quite understanding what Chazz was doing. Why would this boy that he hadn't known all to well be hugging him? Well, sure, Jaden Yuki had hugged him an odd few times in their encounters at school, but that seemed to fit with Jaden's apperantly happy-go-lucky persona. Chazz, however, seemed to radiate vibes that almost pushed people away from him. If that were the case, why exactly was Chazz hugging him?

"Didn't you feel the need I have for you?" Chazz's voice reached Bastion's ears, though Bastion could have sworn he heard a slight edge to the voice, something different, something... off.

A pair of lips pressed against his own put a hault to anymore musings Bastion would have had. Dark eyes widened as the lips parted not enough to completely seperated, but just enough to allow a small breath to pass their lips before the kiss was resumed. Bastion's body remained unresponsive as Chazz's body closed off any personal space with a moan into the hungry kiss assaulting his lips softly.

Chazz's body rubbed sensually against his own, shocking Bastion back into reality. Bastion rose his arms from the sides to Chazz's cheeks and slowly pulled Chazz's head back.

"Chazz, what are you doing?" Bastion stared at the teen with his eyes closed in a peaceful manner, a frown on his face as Chazz smirked with something akin to satisfaction. Bastion felt himself give a small glare. He didn't see anything that was worth satisfaction to anyone, yet somehow Chazz had found it in the kiss stolen from his lips.

Bastion's eyes widened at the thought. Chazz Princeton, a rich teen with an attitude whom he was supposed to be tutoring, just stole his first kiss.

"Chazz!" Bastion hadn't yelled in anger, but moreso in shock. It only mattered in the fact that that had been his first kiss. To Bastion, the whole concept of yelling and freaking out did not fall into his category. It wasn't as though he believed in things like love when it came down to himself- love would only hinder him in his life of formulas and discovering new concepts, but the idea, or rather fact, that someone had suprised him with a kiss. That was what caused the reaction, not the feelings, if there were any, behind it.

"Heh... " Chazz's body shook with withheld laughter, "'Chazz'? Yeah, right."

Two ruby red eyes now faced Bastion, the pair of new colored eyes glazed over with emotions Bastion could not read.

"My name isn't Chazz." He spoke, his lips turned up in a smirk that revealed sharp canines. "Just call me Chaise."


	8. Chapter Eight : Longing

SlippingSanity: Please forgive me! I've been so busy with work and life and all this stuff! I didn't mean to make you all wait! Here's a super long chapter with… well, I don't know… Heh… Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh GX, nor do I own any of its characters. I am only borrowing them for this plot, and make no money from this. Yugioh Gx belongs to Kazuki Takahashi and to the many others that contributed to the GX creation. I take no credit; I am simply borrowing the characters for the plotline.

* * *

Chapter Eight

_Scarlet Rings: Longing_

Longing: To have a strong desire for; wish for very much

Bastion sat unresponsive, the haze of confusion and the whirl of disbelief weighing heavily on his scientific mind. He could not comprehend for the life of him how a person's eye color could suddenly change. Sure, there were contacts that could do such a thing, but he bore witness to it all. No hand rose to place the thin plastic into Chazz's eye.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts, silently scoping out facts and theories for the unexplained phenomenon. Sure, on one hand this was a silly thing to contemplate- the color changes of someone's eyes, but on another hand this could have very well been a brand new discovery. What if there was something wrong with Chazz? What if the changes in eye color were a new symptom of something serious?

Bastion blinked slowly as he regained his grip on reality. With not so much as a word spoken, Bastion raised his hands to Chazz's face and brought the teen closer to him. He could feel the muscles under Chazz's pale flesh tighten then relax, he could feel the teen relax into him, but he paid no real attention to it. Bastion maintained his focus on those ruby eyes, those eyes that were not to long ago sporting the shade of a shadow on beige walls.

How could they have changed? How did those eyes that not too long ago burned with hatred for his tutoring morph into red eyes of deadly emotions of affection, determination, and something Bastion recognized from those smitten individuals he observed as … longing? For what? What was it that the boy longed for?

"What… do you want?" Bastion's mouth involuntarily voiced his curiosity. His words were clipped, his voice crippled by the fear that began to take toll on him the moment his eyes met with the eyes belonging to the other boy in his lap. Bastion could not explain what he felt, but he knew that he was more than certain that he wanted his natural curiosity to buckle up in the backseat for once instead of driving him. He wanted to know the answer to his question, naturally all beings have curiosity, but he feared knowing what Chazz… Chaise (or whatever he wished to be called. At the current moment, Bastion's thoughts and priorities lay elsewhere than simplistic formalities) was going to say.

Even through his hidden, well masked fear Bastion sat in an eager silence like a child being told a campfire scary story. He waited silently, eagerly, for words he almost needed to hear yet really wanted to ignore.

"What do I want?" the black-haired teen echoed with eyebrows raised, almost as though he couldn't believe he was being asked that question. The fabric of their clothing rustled as Chaise sat on Bastion's thighs and slid towards the fearful taller teen's chest. "I…"

Bastion swallowed hard as he sank deeper into the heated anticipation. Were they words he really wanted to hear, or were they the words that he feared? Sweat collected in a thin veil on his forehead as he waited in an anxious patience.

"Want…"

Should he stop the sentence right there? Did he really want to know what the other boy wanted? Would it benefit to know such a thing, or would it lead to many more confusing acts that he really did not want to take part in? No, maybe he should stop the other from talking completely.

Bastion sat as still as a board as the teen in his body said nothing to finish his sentence. With wide eyes Bastion saw without feeling as his lips were taken in what could have been a passionate kiss. His second kiss in less than five minutes by a classmate he had only come to know the name of a few days ago. His second kiss from a teenage boy whom was not too long ago vomiting whatever he'd just eaten, thrashing, and screaming to the highest mountains in blinding fear. Another kiss from another male claiming to be the infamous murderer of the queen of such a peaceful land.

Bastion's fingers twitched with warmth as he gasped slightly at the words just spoken to him by the touchy-feely-kiss teen currently straddling his hips.

"I want you, Bastion."

Bastion sat on his bathroom floor in something of a daze. He knew what was going on, but the words had yet to register. He could hear the words so softy spoken and could feel the deep rooted something that blended so well with those four words, but could not comprehend them. Some stranger felt something so deep for him? That made no sense!

"No!" Bastion winced at the speech diving deeper and deeper into his comprehension, his scientific and mathematic mind quickly absorbing and storing those four words.

"No," Bastion shook his head in a vain attempt to clear his head, his body tingling as some of his energy took form and blew the cause of his racing headache – the raven haired, red eyed teen- across the bathroom walls. A dull slapping sound echoed in the small space followed by the sound of the body sliding down the white tile and into the empty bathtub.

"Nngh…" Chaise released a pain filled groan, raising his hand to his head against the bleeding cut caused on the side of his forehead from the impact. He shook his head from side to side as he slowly opened his eyes to glare at Bastion. "What was that for?!"

"I could ask you the very same question," Bastion replied in a breathless whisper with eyes sharp as glass. "Just who are you to come into my home, violate my mouth with unwanted kisses, and then tell me that you want me?" He questioned as he stood to his feet, leaning against the wall as the blood slowly began to circulate again. His eyes never left the red eyed teen glaring at him from the empty bathtub as he stood tall and spoke clearly with evident anger and distaste. "I don't even know you and –"

"You do." The smaller teen with red eyes interrupted his eyes steady and focused as though he just made the most important announcement the world had heard. His hands were balled into tight fists as he stood in the empty bathtub, his hair dripping over his face concealing all but one ruby orb as though the hair had been dampened. His shoulders were hunched forward slightly as he stood tall like a mirror image of the seriousness of the two words he'd just spoken.

Bastion raised an eyebrow at the interruption. "I beg your pardon?" He questioned, slightly intrigued in the other's words, yet also slightly frightened. Unless it was he himself or other scientist defending a study, theory, or new discovery, he had never seen such conviction in a person's eyes.

Those unnatural red eyes pierced through him, driving their gaze from the physical world to something that couldn't be seen, touched, or even acknowledged. They seemed to wordlessly explain the significance of the words 'You do' while they persuaded Bastion to believe in their own truth.

Bastion had to convince his self to stand still and tall in the frame of his bathroom doorway. He could almost hear the message his mind was giving off to the rest of his body, but he refused to give into the temptation to run. He was going to hear what the delusional teenager had to say, no matter how much he did not.

"You know me," Chaise stood straight, shaking the inky bangs out of his eyes and staring Bastion in the eyes. "You just don't remember me, that's all." He bit his bottom lip, his eyes squint so hard the muscles under his eyes twitched, giving off the appearance that he would cry at any given moment. "You just don't remember. Bastion, you _love_ me… "

Red energy swirled around Chaise's hand as he leapt from the bathtub. His blood boiled in his veins as he was suspended in the air, the sound of his trench coat flapping around him lost in the rapid pulse of moving blood.

"… So don't you ever claim to not know me!" Chaise screamed while coming down with force at the teen who was tutoring the natural wearer of his skin.

Bastion leapt backwards, narrowly avoiding the blast that was aimed at him. He winced at the sound of the crunching tile beneath the black haired teen's blast and the sound of the tile shards whizzing past his head. The small shockwave blew him from the entrance of the bathroom to the living room.

A pained groan passed Bastion's lips as he landed roughly on the couch, his legs over the top and his head over the end of the cushions. He cracked open an eye, watching the whispering boy for any sudden movements.

"You just forgot… "Chaise muttered from his crouched position in the small indentation of ruined tile. "That's all. A simple memory lapse… nothing more…" He continued to mumble words that were hard for Bastion to hear, though the math genius could pick up on the words 'forget', 'lonely', 'death', and something like 'love'.

"Chazz?" Bastion corrected himself on the couch, his eyes holding concern for the other exiting the ruined bathroom. Just like before, he held his head in his hand and his eyebrows knitted together as though he were in pain. With every step the he took he swayed like a person drunk and groaned deep and throaty. "Chazz?" He repeated.

"Shut up! I'm sick of hearing you say that to me!" Chaise yelled at Bastion with eyes blazing, the tile crunching beneath his feet. "I'm not Chazz! Do you understand me?!"

Chaise gripped the collar of Bastion's shirt and threw himself on top of the muscular teen, burying a thigh in the cushion on either side of Bastion's hips. "My name is Chaise! Chaise!" He screamed almost franticly, shaking Bastion as he continued his fits of rage. "Don't mention that name around us, do you understand?! As far as you and I are concerned, that… that boy is dead!"

"What are you talking about?" Bastion forced out between the rapid shaking and the choking grip on his collar. He could not believe what was reaching his ears. Something gripped at his heart, possibly fear, at the words he heard.

"You heard me," Chaise whispered, stealing one more kiss from Bastion's lips before roughly pushing himself off of the taller teenager still in a stupor. "That boy, Chazz Princeton or whatever is never coming back. From now on, it's just me and you!"

Before Bastion could comment or question, Chaise ran out of the door, shutting it tightly behind him and leaping onto the next building's roof.

"I'll make you remember me," Chaise whispered into the air, the wind carrying his words off into the distance, leaving them unheard by anyone other than himself. He would carry out his self proclaimed promise, even if he had to shed tears, sweat, and blood.

'_I…'_ Chaise, the product of death given flesh, wrapped his arms around himself as he continued a journey away from the Misawa household. He hadn't meant to blow up and attack Bastion but it had hurt him. The one that he… that he cared for the most had looked him square in the eyes and claimed to not know him. The thought alone burned in his chest and weighed down on his body, making it almost impossible for him to take another step. He felt the brutal sting of hatred the moment Bastion told him that he didn't know him- could feel the waves of anger and confusion radiating off of Bastion's lips with every kiss he gave.

Chaise bit back a pained groan as he wrapped his arms tighter around his form, jumping from the rooftops and landing carefree in a dark alleyway.

'_I haven't been here long, but I hate this realm of existence.'_ The demon thought bitterly, resting in the shade of the shadows as though the darkness would take him away. He forced his body on the walls, hoping that the shadows would sink him into oblivion just one more time. At least in his own mind, the one he loves so strongly wouldn't have looked him with hatred brimming as deep as a sea. At least in the comfort of his own ignorant blanket, even though it was a killing thought, his dead lover still loved him.

'_Why?'_ Chaise thought, sliding down the cold wall with clouded eyes. He couldn't find any reason for the other male to hate him so much. Sure, he could understand the fear from Bastion's dark eyes because he was something to be feared, but had he really done something to make him hate so much? Nothing Chaise could remember doing could have caused that amount of hatred. Even in their time in the past, Chaise would always do things that were bothersome, embarrassing or otherwise and Bastion would never have gotten to the point of blind hate.

"…_What is this?" Bastion question aloud as he took in the sight before him with disgust. He had come into his house hoping to find something to settle his growling and painfully clenching stomach…_

…_the thick red substance on his plate that bubbled like molten lava and smelt of a sour odor he wouldn't dare begin to describe quickly dispelled that need to eat._

_He raised an eyebrow at the thick substance, debating whether or not to chance his fork being devoured if he poked the thing on his plate._

"_Well?" Bastion's newfound attachment demanded harshly with a glare and a risen eyebrow._

"_You expect me to eat this?" Bastion asked with a sour look on his face. He had opted for an easier way to ask the question, but there was no other way to put it without sounding harsh. On one hand he could have tasted the food, but Bastion would have preferred to keep his tongue from rotting with disgust._

"_You could at least eat it to honor the memory of Earse. I'm sure he would prefer it if you ate him rather than let him rot in the sun." Chaise shrugged nonchalantly, smirking with amusement at the look on Bastion's face. He was certain that if Bastion had anything in his stomach, he would have thrown up._

"_You killed my prized horse?!" Bastion yelled with wide eyes swimming in disbelief. He felt his stomach clench tightly and tasted a sour liquid in his mouth, despite the absence of bile._

"_Yes," Chaise drawled, stating the fact as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "You didn't have any meat left-"_

"_I could have gone shopping!"_

"_- and I figured that I could help you from going poor by feeding you something you already have. Why have you spend what little you have, right?"_

"_What are you talking about? I work for the queen! I have more than enough money!"_

Chaise allowed a small smile to grace his lips at the memory. Sure, Bastion was mad at the demon and had left the house for a few days to clear his head, but he never hated him for his actions.

"_Here," Chaise held out a long, thick strap of leather towards Bastion, his head tilted away from the taller half dressed man. He was reluctant to show it, but a blush had crept on his cheeks._

_Bastion hadn't moved from his kneeled position on the sand as he paused from tying his shoe laces. He stared at Chaise, the material in his hand, and the animal attached to the other end of the leather in a mute shock._

"_Are you going to take the stupid horse or not?" Chaise pulled his arm towards his chest then thrust it out impatiently, the blush on his face increasing at the moment. The act itself was embarrassing itself and the silence and staring from Bastion only succeeding in furthering his discomfort for the situation._

_Slowly Bastion stood to his feet, the sand crunching beneath his long, knee length black boots._

"_Thank you," Bastion smiled as he took the leather from Chaise's hand into his own._

"_Whatever," Chaise whispered before his lips were captured in a kiss._

Chaise pulled his knees to his chest and crossed his arms on top of his knees. He wouldn't be defeated by the crushing feeling around him.

"You will be mine… " Chaise swore as he closed his eyes, pushing Chazz back into his own body.

"This will end. You won't be a nuisance to me anymore," Chazz felt his lips move and heard his voice speak, but the pale, dull eyed boy paid no mind, his thoughts wound in the blender of blood and death as he semiconsciously made his way towards his house.


	9. Chapter Nine : Warning

SlippingSanity: This sure took some time to write! Lol! Hope you all enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh GX, nor do I own any of its characters. I am only borrowing them for this plot, and make no money from this. Yugioh Gx belongs to Kazuki Takahashi and to the many others that contributed to the GX creation. I take no credit; I am simply borrowing the characters for the plotline.

* * *

Chapter Nine

_Scarlet Rings: Warning_

Warning: 1) A sign, indication, notice, or threat of coming danger. 2) Advice to beware or to stop a given course of action. 3) Something, such as a signal, that warns.

He listened as she spoke to him again through parted lips spilling over with ribbons of blood. She cursed his name, cursed his very existence, as the river of crimson continued to flow against her pale skin. With eyes half open he stared as she shed tears of crystal as she screamed at him before he struck her, causing her angered screams to morph into the screams of undiluted pain. Her brown locks flew around as she tossed and turned her head from side to side, her teary brown eyes covered with eyelids tightly shut.

He raised his hand again and struck her with a power-coated blow that buried his hand wrist deep inside of her. He twitched his fingers and scratched at what his eyes could not see. She could feel it, the claws digging into her beneath her skin. He knew she felt pain, and did nothing but stare at her as he burned her with nails that sketched her death. He felt nothing as he removed his hand with a slick, sickening sound before licking the blood off of his fingers. His fingers curled almost in a feline pose and came down on her once more. Both hands scratched at her and she writhed in pain once again. In that moment he wished that he could be her.

Even if it were pain, he would have gladly accepted it. He would have liked something to make him feel real and alive, rather than feel like the empty shell of a being moving along in the world of life. He felt cramped yet empty, bothered yet alone, there yet nowhere. Why did he feel this way? Why now? He slowly tried to recall anything, but nothing bothered to come to him. At the moment, all that he could make sense of was his sinking emotions, spiraling into something consuming. But why was he consumed? Why did he feel so smothered? Angrily, he growled in annoyance, mentally pleading for anything. Something had to be around to snap him out of what he was feeling.

He heard a faint murmur not too far behind him. It repeated itself again, this time the murmur becoming clearer. He strained his ears towards the muddy words, slowly straining the mud into crystal clear waters.

"…azz…. Chazz!"

The teen blinked at his name, hearing the word so familiar to him but unable to understand it.

"Chazz!"

"What?" Chazz asked his voice weak with weariness. "What?" He repeated his question, forcefully this time around.

"Stop it, Chazz! You've won!" The angry demand was spoken to him by Bastion, his voice laced with strain and a quiver of fear. "Isn't that enough?" The accented voice added, Chazz noted, next to his ear.

Chazz frowned at the closeness of his appointed tutor, his eyebrows knotting at the feel of Bastion's warm breath on his skin. He didn't know why Bastion was behind him but he wasn't comfortable with it at all. Chazz attempted to walk away from Bastion and regain his personal space, but found it impossible.

"What the…?" Chazz asked with confusion etched into his features. His arms were raised held above his head, the elbows still bent slightly out in front of him, and his wrist were held together by one of Bastion's hands. Eyes traveling south, Chazz saw the other yellow jacket covered arm wrapped tightly around his waist and even suspending his body inches off of the ground. Chazz also spotted a mop of brown hair and a mop of light blue hair. Apparently, Jaden and Syrus were holding him around the waist as well.

"Let go of me!" Chazz demanded with a glare, fighting against the holds on his body.

"Are you gonna calm down?" Jaden raised his head and looked Chazz in the eyes.

Chazz felt his eyes widen slightly as he stared into Jaden's brown eyes. He could feel something in those milk chocolate orbs that laughed at him. Those eyes teased and reprimanded him with a smirk that didn't connect with the lips. Chazz averted his gaze to the grey eyes belonging to Jaden's boyfriend hoping to suppress the angry desire to blacken those mocking eyes.

"I'm fine!" Chazz's tone was harsh as he glared at the two in front of him. He would have gladly glared Bastion into submission if he had eyes in the back of his head. "Now let me go!" He spoke each word clearly and angrily, stressing the severity of his demand.

"No, don't let him go!" a high pitched voice caught his attention, his eyes not even one second ago blazing with anger at the scream now filled with surprise.

Two teenaged girls glared passionately at him for only about a second more before a pair of gray eyes beneath red bangs glossed over with tears. The other girl glared at Chazz one second longer before turning her brown eyes away to face a figure on the laid floor with concern.

The surprise in Chazz's eyes quickly dissolved into fear.

Alexis's body gave off tiny twitches of power, the light blue energy snapped like wild electricity as she forced herself to move. Thin lines of blood passed the line her of her lips, the sign of a busted lip. Her right arm wrapped around her waist, holding her left side that bled through the fabric of her blue and white training outfit. The one-piece was torn in many places, though none of the skin appeared to be cut or bruised. Some of the formfitting fabric tore a little as Alexis forced her body to sit up with the aid of her left arm.

"What were you doing?!" The teen with brown eyes and black hair, the one Chazz reminded himself was Alexis's friend Jasmine, yelled at Chazz.

"You could have seriously hurt her!" The redhead, Mindy, added with equal venom in her eyes and tone, tears in the corners of her eyes out of possible rage and fear for one of her best friends.

_What?_ Chazz's eyes widened a fraction. _I hurt her?_ He shook his head so slowly that it appeared as though the very action was forced. To him, it felt like the muscles in his neck refused to act, even though his entire being wanted nothing to do with Alexis's beaten and bleeding body. She wasn't supposed to be in any type of pain. Alexis, the one he lo-

_No!_ Chazz glared before himself as if he were glaring at his own thoughts. He would never, ever hurt her!

"I'm fine…" Alexis said through tightly clenched white teeth as she slid her legs beneath her body and forced herself to stand. The heels of her boots clicked against the floor without rhythm when she swayed. A small groan passed her throat as she collected herself, and even as she forced herself to stand still, her body continued to tremble.

Chazz could hear another faint groan from a distance, surprised to hear that groan pass his own throat. Whereas Alexis's was possibly due to the pain of her movements, Chazz could feel the butterflies flapping rapidly in his stomach and, as his stomach felt like it was tightening, Chazz vaguely wondered if he could possibly throw up one of those winged insects.

"No you're not," Mindy whined with a shaky voice to Alexis as she and Jasmine rose to their feet next to their best friend. Worried eyes blinked rapidly in any attempt to hold back tears.

"Yeah," Jasmine nodded, wrapping her arms around Alexis's shoulders, "You should go to the nurse and have yourself checked out. Especially the bleeding…" She trailed off, her words almost a whisper drowning in the blood leaking out between Alexis's knuckle cut gloves.

Light blue slowly began to cover itself with more ribbons of red. Alexis's fingers were dyed red, her digits convulsing with pain and possibly some fear that she would not allow her already panicked friends to see. With each breath she took, she held herself tighter as though she would rip in half if she inhaled deep enough.

"You should be ashamed of yourself!" Jasmine's dying voice returned with full power as she yelled at the stricken boy. "I can't believe that you would do this to Alexis!"

_I didn't…_ Chazz mentally countered, even if his thoughts seemed as though they were whimpered. He didn't care at the moment. Any type of retort would have done nicely for him.

"Yeah!" Mindy nodded in agreement as she slid her arms around Alexis's right forearm, attempting to brace the girl who had almost fallen once more.

"I… didn't…" Chazz forced his voice to work. His words were as silent as a whisper, and as rough as a growl. The parted, broken sentence would have gone unnoticed unheard under normal circumstances, but the silence of the entire class bearing witness to his crumbling state mega phoned the sound. Even his heart sounded as though there were a microphone near its rapid beating. "… I didn't-"

"Yes you did!" Mindy screamed with her eyes shut tightly to hold back her angered tears. How dare he deny something that everyone in the class saw him do!

"You're horrible, Chazz! And to think that I could have liked someone like you," Jasmine spoke aloud, mumbling the words and blushing as she looked to the flood sporting a small red puddle of blood.

_She liked me?_ Chazz noted with a raised eyebrow. He didn't know whether to be happy for himself or disgusted.

"You aren't worth liking at all!" Mindy's face flushed with embarrassment and anger as she said those words, her hold on Alexis's arm tightening.

"Hey!" The three voices of Bastion, Jaden, and Syrus interrupted.

"He may not be one of the nicest people in the world, but he doesn't deserve to be told that!" Chazz's eyes widened a fraction hearing the words Bastion spoke. He didn't know Chazz well enough, if at all, to know that those five words cut him like a blade yet here he was unknowingly bandaging his ungrateful tutor. Maybe, Chazz considered, he'd actually attempt to pay attention instead of pass out on Bastion's couch.

The thought raised more questions in Chazz's mind that demanded to be answered. If he had indeed fallen asleep on Bastion's couch, how had he ended up in some dingy alleyway? Could he have sleepwalked? No, that held no merit to it. Bastion wouldn't have let him simply walk into the city in an unconscious state, as that simply didn't seem likely for someone of his intelligence to do. Also, there was also the fact that he had woken up on the couch and ran for the bathroom. Why had he done that again? Was he sick on that day?

"Someone needs to tell him!" Mindy snapped. The tears now flowed freely down her cheeks as she spoke. "Why do you think Alexis isn't with him, no matter how obvious it was that he liked her?"

"Hey!" Alexis protested at Mindy's back, but the girl didn't seem to hear her.

"If this is how he was going to treat her, then she deserved someone much better!" Jasmine stomped her heel on the battle floor, the sound echoing in everyone's ears like a boom.

"Jasmine!" Alexis couldn't believe what they were saying to Chazz. Sure, she understood why they were saying what they did, their best friend was bleeding and could hardly stand at the moment, but didn't they realize that they were hurting someone? "What are you two-"

"Alexis?" Chazz stared in disbelief. She knew how he felt even when she came to his house on that fateful day? She knew that he liked her, but still came to his face and told him that she was Zane's girlfriend? "I see how it is." He lied. He couldn't understand anything, and it was painful enough to be a physical blow to the head.

"No," Alexis didn't look Chazz in the eyes. "You don't." She whispered as she continued to look at anything other than him.

Knives drove their way into his body, the chipped and sharp edges hacking primitively into his flesh yet leaving not a wound in their wake. His heart was removed from his chest, choked with barbed wire, and forced back into his body making every heartbeat more painful than the last. The metal sunk in deeper and deeper, growing and spreading inside of his body and constricting every vital organ. Chazz felt the invisible death snaking its way through every part of him as if the intrusion was searching for a means of escape while its points grew and stabbed along the way.

"Hurts…" Chazz whispered aloud, wincing at his own voice and cursing it for betraying him. So what if he did hurt? It was his own pain, so he had to deal with it on his own. He'd dealt with so many other pains in his life, so what was one more item on the list?

Rejection.

_So what?_ Chazz mentally scoffed.

Rejection by Alexis.

That was what hurt the most. '_By Alexis_' was the last nail in the coffin. Faintly Chazz could hear the hammering all around him. The pain stopped and the wire was gone, but now cold air blew through the many empty holes. His body was shaking from the cold- he could feel it even though he couldn't feel his own body. His fingers twitched and energy snapped about the room quick and dangerous, but he didn't move nor had the energy for the almost lightning attacks. He hovered nearby, watching wide-eyed in disbelief as Jaden ran to his other side to intercept a stray blast headed for Syrus and got his, the attack knocking Jaden into Syrus and blowing the two out of the training area through a dark hole in the wall that he, Chazz, may have created accidentally but had been unaware of.

Was what he was experiencing some type of an out-of-body experience? If so, it was unnecessary and highly annoying.

"Chazz?" someone whimpered his name, and suddenly Chazz could feel his skin again.

Down at his feet lay Alexis covered in new scratches and bleeding scrapes. Her body was turned over on to her left side, both of her fingers laced over her wound still bleeding. Locks of her light brown hair were dyed red at the tips as they swam in the thin pool of blood Alexis had fallen down in, her training attire sprinkled with tiny spats here and there.

"She's dying again…" Chazz spoke over the crackle of power snapping about him and the room. "I can see the red. She's torn and spilling over, spewing that rancid acid blood again!" the air around Chazz shifted into something that made even Chazz stand on edge as he continued to speak the strange words leaving his mouth as if her were reading them aloud from some foreign book. "Run! Take me away from her! She'll poison me again! She'll kill us all!" The lightning energy became black as it lashed out faster and harder. Crumbling walls and shattering windows nearly drowned out the sounds of panicking students and teachers screaming and running around.

"What are you talking about?" Alexis groaned as she once again fought to her feet. "Do you mean me?"

"Witch! You know I'm talking about you!" Chazz screamed at Alexis. He began to curse her name and threaten her all the while struggling to get free from the grip Bastion still, amazingly, held him in.

"Let go of me!" Chazz writhed in the hold, feeling more or less like himself. "Let go!" He demanded, wanting nothing more than to get out of the training room and wake up in his bed to have this be nothing more than a dream. "Are you stupid or something? Let go!"

He continued to fight for his freedom, twisting and kicking and yelling threats almost as vivid as if they were happening at the moment. Bastion hadn't let up, even when Chazz had freed his wrist and turned to Bastion with a glare that could evaporate ice he continued to hold Chazz around the waist. Even when Chazz raised an arm to his chest and slowly gathered the red energy, Bastion had not let go. Midway through gathering, however, Chazz paused and stiffened.

"He's here," Chazz whispered.

"Zane!" Alexis's eyes widened with surprise as she watched the back of Zane's white and blue trench coat blowing out behind him. "How did you get in here? What are you doing here?"

"You're not hurt, are you?" Zane crossed his arms over his chest, his dark blue eyes glaring at Chazz from behind the barrier he created. His eyes squinted slightly as he took in Chazz's appearance. The teen seemed to be frantic, his black eyes wide and pupils shaking with fear. He shook as he stood in the arms of the taller teen, Bastion Misawa from one of his classes he realized. Red lighting shot out in streams from Chazz, destroying any and everything in its destructive path. With something akin to mild amusement, Zane took notice of how none of the wild attacks befell Bastion even in his closeness to Chazz.

"Prince!" Chazz bowed as low as he could in Bastion's arms, the mocking action followed swiftly with a rain of dark lightning on Zane's energy shield.

"Chazz," Zane drew out the name in a low growl.

"So you came to save the little witch, huh? Awfully brave, if not suicidal." Chazz smirked at Zane's impassive expression. "She'll kill you, you know that right?" His smirk fell, quickly replaced with the deranged expression of fear and hate Zane was greeted with earlier. "Smash the snake's head! Don't let it bear its fangs or they'll sink into you! She's a monster! She wears the skin of humans, but in her blood runs that poison of her mother's mother!" Chazz cried over the boom of destruction he idly caused. "You'll be another forceful sacrifice just like me!"

Chazz covered his heart, clutching the fabric tightly as if it would grant him access to his pained heart. He groaned aloud with pain, gritting his teeth to hold back whatever he was saying. Those words… they were not his own and held no significance that he could think of. They were alien to him and made the force he'd felt at Bastion's stir madly. Whatever that other thing was inside him could obviously sense the foreign intruder and was not at all proud of it.

Regardless of his own feelings or objections, Chazz's mouth once again began to move. The pain in his chest increased and his face felt hot. His eyes began to water with tears that weren't his and his body was being overtaken by a weakness of another.

The darkness within Chazz writhed restlessly.

"Kill her, prince, before she can sink her fangs into you! She'll burn your insides and melt your flesh! Your ashes will be swept out the window as she feeds your soul to her inherited beast!" The tears slid down his face like ice on his hot flesh.

"Please end it…" Chazz sobbed as he held himself. "It's so dark in that gluttonous space. So lonely…"

"Who are you?" Zane raised one eyebrow as he stored the words into his memory. He would find the meaning to the words once the current situation was over and find a way to resolve what sounded like a problem. He couldn't explain it, but he could feel the fear from the unknown force wrapped around Chazz.

"You know I'm not this boy?"

"I can't see you but I can see traces of your spiritual being. It's like a thin thread slowly being unwound from Chazz's body." Zane stated calmly, slowly dissolving the shield around Alexis and himself. The power surging from Chazz was dying out fast and no longer a threat. "You won't last here long."

"Sadly," Chazz gave Zane a forced smile, the tears sliding down his cheeks. "I won't be anywhere any longer. This was it. All I can do is warn you. The rest is up to you."

The thread slipped from Chazz's ankle onto the floor. Within seconds the thin white line dissolved into glitter and flew away.

Silence enveloped the last four remaining in the destroyed training room, only interrupted by the sounds of setting rubble and the sounds of their own breathing.

"Zane?" Alexis tested the silence.

"Let's go," Zane offered Alexis his hand. "We need to get you to the nurse."

"Y-Yeah…" Alexis took his hand with uncertainty.

"Chazz," Bastion whispered to the teen panting heavily in his arms with his head against his shoulder. "Are you alright?"

Chazz remained silent as he leaned against Bastion weak and breathless. If Bastion had let go of him like he had demanded, Chazz was sure that he would have ended up on the ground. He was grateful for the other's stubbornness, that much was mentally obvious, but still…

"That's never happened…to me before…" Chazz spoke between big gulps of air. "None of this… before I met you…"

Bastion raised an eyebrow.

"This…is…" Chazz tilted his head and glared at Bastion through his black, sweat drenched hair, "all your fault…" Chazz exhaled, his body collapsed into Bastion's arms as he blacked out from exhaustion.

* * *

Syrus shook his head with a pained groan, bringing one hand up to his head as if to quell the pain.

"Syrus," He heard Jaden call his name from somewhere near his left. "Are you alright?"

"Jay?" Syrus pushed himself up from the floor, slowly opening his eyes. "Ah!" Syrus gave a frightened shriek as he came face to face with two floating blue orbs in the darkness.

He took a step back, pressing himself against a wall as his fingers twitched anxiously to find the light switch. The two orbs floated closer to him as he continued his frightened quest. With an exhale of relief, Syrus flicked the switch he'd been searching for and the darkness was suddenly flooded with a bright light. Syrus exhaled with relief at seeing Jaden's face.

"Wh-Where are we?" Syrus examined their surroundings.

The space they were in was like a perfect cube. Tall walls of a rich cream color surrounded them on all four sides, reaching towards a smooth ceiling painted black. On the wall farthest from Syrus was a wooden door shut tight and locked with a chain, a chair jammed underneath the round golden knob. On the wall to the left was a window covered by dark curtains that ruffled somewhat, leading Syrus to believe that window was at least cracked open. To the wall opposite of the lone window was a bare wall covered with many slashes of red and one thick line of red that slid from the wall to the floor, from the floor up to the wall Syrus was against, and from the wall up to his own body.

"What-"

"I'm sorry you had to wake up," Jaden spoke, only now Syrus noted how the voice differed from the one he loved. This voice held a deep, serious edge laced heavily with something that made Syrus shiver. "You could have died in peace." The person spoke again, opening his eyes and revealing the blue eyes hovering above Syrus not to long ago.

Before Syrus could think to scream, a hand was wrapped tightly around his neck and lips were pressed against his own. Syrus winced with a familiar disgust that could only be tasted off of one person.

"You winced away from me, Sy," Jaden, or at least his look-alike, feigned hurt as he loosened his grip on Syrus's neck. "Why?"

"You aren't Jaden," Syrus glared into the blue eyes.

"Ah, but you didn't know that for sure, did you?"

Syrus said nothing.

"Do you know now? Even now, are you sure I'm not Jaden?"

Once again, Syrus remained silent. The only difference was that this time tears began to form in Syrus's eyes.

"I taste like him, don't I? That wretched taste that you want to vomit from every time you kiss Jaden?" Blue eyes teased him "I taste like the grave, don't I? You can tell me, Syrus. I'm Jaiyen, Jaden's _friend_. Does it disgust you? It does, doesn't it?"

"Do you know what it's like to taste death?! I taste it every time I kiss Jaden!" Syrus cried hysterically as the tears fell like a running faucet. He couldn't hold his tongue anymore against this sickly sweet voice he knew didn't belong to his Jaden. "It's sickening! I hate it so much!"

"Then leave him, you murderer!" Jaiyen screamed as he once again tightened his grip in Syrus's neck. "Die you vile beast!"

"I… I c-cant…" Syrus wheezed, his eyes squinting and his hands wrapped around Jaiyen's wrist in any attempt to pry the killing grip off of him. "Jay… help me…" He hoped Jaden could hear him. He slightly wondered if Jaden had used that drug again.

"He's asleep," Jaiyen purred with a smile and eyes glistening with malicious intent. "He's sleeping off the pain you've inflicted on him. He won't be here to save you."

"Ah!" Syrus breathlessly screamed. His lungs felt heavy and his body was on fire. His mind screamed at him to inhale, to breathe in the life supporting oxygen he so desperately needed. "Please, let go…" Syrus's vision began to blur with tears, darkness swirling from the corners of his sight slowly working its way in a hostile takeover of death.

"Never," Jaiyen smirked with satisfaction. "You're going to die, and I'll steal your life force. I'll take back what you stole from Jaden and then some. I'll be almost immortal while you rot in your undeserved hole in the ground."

Syrus whimpered as he fell deeper into the swirling, hungry darkness. Jaiyen's words seemed to become a haunting whisper, his laughter a sinister lullaby to his slowly deafening ear. He could hear the blood in his body pause and his heart rates begin to slow as his mind continued to scream at him. Breathe, his mind commanded, Breathe and live, but Jaiyen's grip refused to listen to any of his pleas whether whimpered or mentally screamed.

"Sorry…" Syrus said as he wrapped his fingers a loose grip around Jaiyen's wrist.

"What?" Jaiyen's eyes flew wide with surprise at the words.

Syrus's body illuminated a pale blue in the shadows of their surrounding area, his grey eyes now a full creamy white color. The fingers wrapped around Jaiyen's wrist glowed a mixture of colors ranging from orange to red to purple to dark blue into the thin lines of light blue that slowly wrapped around Syrus's body and towards his heart.

"L-Let go of me!" Jaiyen cried as he used his other hand to try to pull Syrus's glowing digits away from his flesh. "You leech! Stop it!" Blue eyes shook with fear and fury and desperation as he continued to try to snatch Syrus's hands away from his wrist, but to no avail. "Stop feeding off of me!"

Jaiyen shook his head, his wide and frightened eyes still trained on those hands glittering with fatal magic seeping the life-force from him and purifying it before absorbing it into Syrus's being. His grip on Syrus's neck loosened, and he thought fearfully that he was becoming weaker and weaker due to Syrus rather than his own will to let go.

"I don't need this! Not again!" Jaiyen screamed in a panic. "Let go of me! Let me go you murderer! Monster! You bloodstained angel!"

Syrus let go of Jaiyen with shock and fear in his veins. The blue glow faded rapidly, leaving only the frightened figure of a helpless teen limply holding the wrist of whoever was out to kill him. His grey eyes stared down at the other whom had fallen to his knees from fatigue and fear.

"Jay?" Syrus whispered with shivering teeth and a quivering body.

"Not again." Jaiyen repeated with wide, unfocused eyes. Whatever was going on, Syrus had no clue nor could he, in his terrified state of mind, even begin to fathom.

"I don't deserve it. Not again. Damned bloodstained angel." Jaiyen now appeared to be focused and glaring directly into Syrus's eyes. "You heard me. You're sin wrapped in innocence, blasphemy and hypocrisy. Look at you, walking in the herd of sheep while sharpening your fangs. Ready to feast, are we?"

"I don't," Syrus let the wrist slip from his unbinding grasp, "know what you're talking about."

"Liar," Jaiyen smirked, "you knew you were killing Jaden, didn't you? You knew you were stealing his life!" The smirk faded almost instantly, a glare now in its place. "You're a murder! Murderer!"

"No!" Syrus objected as he began to shake twice as much. "No, I'm not!"

"You also knew that you were killing everyone else around you, right?! Random acquaintances, your teachers, your classmates, your friends, your boyfriend, your brother, your parents! You're killing them all! You know that though, don't you?!"

"No! No, I don't!" Syrus held tightly at the sides of his head, shaking it from side to side as his grey eyes widened so that they almost appeared to be all white again. "I'm not! I'm not a murderer!"

"You're a monster, Syrus! Everything you do is covered in blood by your own hands! Everyone you know treads on the fragile glass that you push them on!" The hysterical pitch was once again in Jaiyen's tone. "You're covered in blood under all that make up! Take a good look at yourself! I see the blood! I smell the death! You reek worse than that godforsaken demon back there!"

"No!" Syrus cried, stumbling away from the frightening words coming from the invasion in his boyfriend's body mouth. "No!" He repeated through sobs. "No! No!" He continued to cry as he slid down against the wall in a corner he had walked into. "No!" Tears continued to pour down his pale cheeks.

"You are nothing Syrus!" Jaiyen slowly crawled towards Syrus. "You are nothing!"

Syrus hiccoughed loud and fast, his eyes red and puffy, his body shaking uncontrollably. He couldn't tell whether or not it was a lie or the truth. Had he really been knowledgeable about killing Jaden? He knew that he could taste something bitter, something so foul that it only reached his senses whenever he visited a graveyard or passed some poor road kill, so he just assumed it was death in Jaden's kiss. Did he really know that he was killing Jaden? Or did he just assume that Jaden might have visited the graveyard a lot and contracted some dark essence.

He hiccoughed again and wailed loudly. It was only now that he realized how foolish that sounded. A tad bit delusional as well. Yes, he was just delusional and maybe a bit hopeful?

"Leave me alone!" Syrus forced through the hiccoughs, curling into himself away from Jaiyen's outstretched hand.

"You are nothing, you false idol, but I can make something out of you." Jaiyen sat next to Syrus, wrapping his arm around Syrus's shoulders and ignoring Syrus's weak attempt to pull away.

They stayed silent for some time. Syrus's wailing, choking and sobbing eventually died out to nothing more than silent tears and the occasional gasp for air.

"You are nothing to me, nor are you to anyone or anything, but I can make something out of you. What do you say?"

Syrus turned towards Jaiyen, his eyes no longer wet with tears but still red and puffy. His eyes still held fear in them as he met Jaiyen's clear blue ones, his lips trembling as Jaiyen's were parted in a welcoming smile.

"What?" Syrus asked his voice raw from crying so hard.

"Do you want me to make you real? I can end this needless suffering of others. I mean, you do love Jaden, don't you?"

Syrus inhaled sharply, feeling his eyes sting as tears began to form again. He felt crushed under some imaginary weight at the statement. Was he really killing Jaden, or was it some clever lie? Could this thing that not too long ago tried to kill him be trusted?

"Jaden," Syrus whimpered helplessly. What would Jaden do if faced with something like this?

"He knows you're killing him, Syrus."

"What?" Syrus's eyes widened as the tears began to pour again.

"He knows you're killing him. He actually wanted to say something about it, but I stopped him. I told him that you wouldn't be happy to know something like this, and he doesn't like seeing you unhappy."

"Then why did you tell me?!" Syrus screamed, his trembling hands clenching into tight tiny fist. "Why did you have to tell me?!"

"Do you want Jaden to die?!" Jaiyen glared. "Is ignorance really bliss for you?!"

Syrus was silenced with surprise. "No," He whispered helplessly, "but-"

"It's hard, right? Losing someone so close to you, especially if it's at your own hands, is such a terrible feeling. But you, Syrus, you have a way to make things right. You can save him and everyone else!" Jaiyen smiled again. "All you have to do is say the word…"

Syrus bit his lip. He was cold and so scared and confused. Nothing made much sense to him anymore and every direction seemed to only point to a dead end with the emphasis on 'dead'. He wanted to go with whatever the stranger was offering, but something inside of him screamed at him not to. Something inside told him that it was all a lie, and that he should talk it out with Jaden before hand.

_Still,_ Syrus frowned, _Jaden knew? Why didn't he say anything?_

"I… I don't know," Syrus answered truthfully. His eyelids fluttered open and closed as he tried to stay awake. He was so tired from crying, and the stressful decisions seemed to take its toll on him. He was weary and in need of rest.

Jaiyen frowned for a second, smiling before Syrus could notice the change of expression.

"Alright, then. Let me know when you're ready," Jaiyen mentally rolled his eyes as Syrus nodded slowly before drifting to sleep possibly against his will.

_He's not as simple as I thought._ Jaiyen glared. On one hand, knowing that Syrus wasn't foolhardy enough to fall into his trap was satisfactory; on the other it was highly annoying.

_I'll have my way._ Jaiyen slipped away, returning to Jaden whom looked thoroughly confused.

"What's going on?" Jaden asked aloud.

He moved to stand but was caught off guard as something fell into his lap. He recognized the figure as Syrus almost as quickly as his head landed in his lap, and was mentally grateful that he hadn't made a loud note of his shock.

_Syrus,_ Jaden exhaled deeply. His brown eyes hardened at the redness under Syrus's closed eyes. _You've been crying._ He straightened out Syrus's body and hugged the sleeping boy to his chest. _I'm sorry._ He apologized not knowing the reason, yet holding the feeling that he was somehow involved.

"I'm sorry."


	10. Chapter Ten : Resolve

SlippingSanity: I am so sorry that this is so late and short and not how I promised it to be. I'll fix that mistake next chapter, Burakku's Shadow, I promise!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh GX, nor do I own any of its characters. I am only borrowing them for this plot, and make no money from this. Yugioh Gx belongs to Kazuki Takahashi and to the many others that contributed to the GX creation. I take no credit; I am simply borrowing the characters for the plotline.

* * *

Chapter Ten

_Scarlet Rings: Resolve_

Resolve: 1) To make a firm decision. 2) A decision or resolution.

It was white all around. Unlike the darkness, it was bright and he could see the smooth never-ending surface stretched out before him. It was a bearable cold that brought a small shiver out of his body, rather than the frigid winds that froze his body into ice. Something made light whooshing noises off to his right, and he noted that, unlike the darkness, light allowed full usage of at least three out of five senses. He felt too tired to speak, and there was certainly nothing he felt like putting the sense of taste to test.

Chazz floated on the comfort staring into the light around him and frowned with the whispers from deep within his mind that said that the light is just like the darkness. It was the same, only with more privileges and more freedoms. There was still nothingness, and there was still loneliness.

He fumbled with the idea of loneliness for a few seconds before he was distracted by a dull ache in his chest area.

There were bandages wrapped around his torso, he realized as he took in a sharp breath. Secure to the point of suffocation, he noted dully. Even still, that was far from the cause of his discomfort as he continued to breathe silently but heavily. What felt like a large bruise near or even above his heart throbbed painfully, almost as if the blow had been done recently.

Chazz frowned at the pain, slowly raising his hand to the pulsing pain. Even the light graze over the securing fabric caused coils of pain to slither throughout almost every nerve in his body, and he immediately slid his arm down to his side.

Could he really hurt in death? Was he really dead?

Dark eyes scanned one side of his surroundings. Clutters of papers, clothes, and other objects and furniture he knew so well instantly quelled his thoughts.

He was not dead at all. He was just in his bedroom staring at his ceiling.

"Right," Chazz scoffed at himself. Like he'd really die so easily from something he could barely remember.

"Chazz?" A familiar voice reached his ears, and he scoffed again. His appointed tutor was here in his room, and apparently had taken it upon himself to play caretaker.

_Idiot. Loser._ Chazz berated Bastion as he glared at the ceiling one second longer.

Chazz turned in his bed to look at Bastion, ignoring the pain the movement brought upon him. His eyes narrowed in anger and disgust as he watched the fabric of Bastion's clothing sporting the red color of blood like a flag. The color was splashed on almost every article of Bastion's clothing; even the yellow jacket appeared to have been a sort of weird tie-dye fabric.

Chazz glared at Bastion's clothing a while longer with grit teeth. A low growl made its presence known while Chazz clenched his hands into tight fists. What was Bastion doing still wearing those soiled things? Why had he still worn that testament to Chazz's insanity and remained blind to the awful things that ran through Chazz's mind and body because of it?

"You're awake?" Bastion neared the edge of Chazz's bed quickly. His concern quickly changed into one of puzzlement as Chazz grabbed hold of his red and yellow blazer.

"Take this off," Chazz glared into Bastion's dark eyes as he fisted the long sleeved blazer. His teeth grit tighter as he felt the now cold liquid roll between his fingers and down his forearm before dripping off at the elbow, refusing to let himself acknowledge the twisted feeling of self disgust the blood rung from Bastion's jacket rose. "Now."

Bastion said nothing as he dropped his gaze from Chazz's almost desperate glare to the hands fisting his school color-coordinated jacket. Small pale fist clenched angrily at his stained clothing, pulling in almost the entire large odd splat of blood as if to hide it away from anyone who may have seen it; away from Chazz himself. Bastion noticed the small trembles in Chazz's arms that came from the grip on his jacket, and saw the goosebumps rise from the cold air hitting the thin lines of blood on Chazz's skin.

"What did I say?" Chazz demanded Bastion's eyes back to his for a second. "Take it off!" Chazz's fingers shook as he fumbled to take the stained fabric off of Bastion's person. He had to take off his own blazer and jackets before, knew the all too easy routine of such a task, but couldn't seem to find any method to remove Bastion's.

A growl found its way past Chazz's throat as he grew more and more frustrated. Why was it so hard to remove the blazer?! If only his fingers didn't shake so much…

"Chazz," Bastion caught the addressed teen's wrist with his hands and held them steady. "I would appreciate it if you did not."

Those words held in the air like a balloon filled with helium and for a brief moment the expression in Chazz's eyes left Bastion to believe that the balloon and been carried away into the sky above. The confused and surprised look continued to dance around like sparks in Chazz's eyes as Bastion stared down at the shorter male with a calm expression.

Chazz continued to fist Bastion's jacket as he sat on his bed, he continued to repeat Bastion's words and he felt the drops of blood coil over his cold skin and drip into the small dark circle beginning to form on his covers. No matter how hard he tried, it seemed as though he couldn't get a reign in on his emotions and he tore his eyes away from Bastion's before he could further disgrace himself. The wall held his gaze as if it had all the answers to all of Chazz's unspoken and unthought-of questions.

Silence stilled the room, and Chazz continued to listen to the unmoving lips of the mute wall. He watched with unfocused eyes as some sort of dull anticipation for a projector of his life to roll on the creamy white surface and sort everything out. Maybe it could even show him why he was experiencing odd phenomenon that no one in his family had experienced, tell him why so much blood seemed to rain down and cake on his skin, and even explain to him why it felt so good, comforting even, to sit in the silence and clench Bastion close to his seated body.

Chazz barely noticed as Bastion wrapped his fingers around Chazz's wrists and pull his hands away. He noticed as immediate as his mind dragged itself away from the wall that his hands were unbidden reaching out for Bastion. He could feel every twitch in his digits and every struggling extend his muscles made for the taller teen.

He snatched his arms free, cursing himself for his unexplainable want and desire, and crossed the betraying appendages over his chest.

"Why…" Chazz whispered sharply into the silence and grit his teeth after the word left his mouth with a bitter taste. There was nothing to say after that one word, or at least none that came immediately to mind. The one word that held itself up so brightly in the dark uncomfortable silence could have been easily finished with any number of the raging questions demanding answers in his head, but none of them dared to reach his lips. It felt to him as if he knew the answers to the questions, but refused to ask for fear of a new, unwanted answer.

"Why?" Bastion repeated in his soft baritone voice, and Chazz didn't know whether he wanted to know or wanted the other teen to shut his mouth. "It's because this is as close as I'll let myself get to you," Bastion's words were almost a whisper as they came to a finish.

"What are you talking about?" Chazz asked with as much forcefulness as he could summon to coat the confusion he wasn't positive his body would let him hide.

Chazz couldn't understand it. He could easily bluff or block out anything he didn't want to convey to the public outside of his thoughts. Emotions never ran further than the chained leash he kept tight around them, his mouth never ran laps without his body, and his body never made unconscious decisions on its own. Chazz was as predictable as he let himself be, and that was that. If he wanted to smile, he'd do it on his own. If he wanted to talk, he moved the alphabet into words. His control was what made him so distant and so different and so powerful, but his control over himself shattered like stricken glass when Bastion was near.

No, he could never deceive Bastion, and the thought alone terrified him more than he would ever let himself believe.

"That wound on your chest, Chazz," Bastion's explanation sounded oddly like the rehearsed script of an acting doctor and for a brief moment Chazz wanted to look around his room for cameras. "I did it to you."

Chazz frowned as Bastion as he stared at the taller teen looking down at him waiting for his response.

"What?!" Chazz glared into Bastion's eyes to convey his total seriousness on the matter. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

Bastion winced from the volume of the enraged accusation, and Chazz winced from the pain in his chest, but still their eyes never left one another's. Bastion met Chazz's fire with eyes so calm it almost passed for condescending, and the threatening sparks of electric dark energy silently told the other that he was not in the business of feeling small.

Bastion cleared his throat before continuing.

"I was just…" He stared up at the ceiling as if to collect his thoughts. His mouth moved as he stared above his head, and Chazz could catch the whispered mathematical equations Bastion chanted rhythmically. For a second he was lost in that voice, but only for a second.

"You were just…" Chazz was determined to receive and answer for marring his flesh with a painful and, from what he could guess, ugly wound.

"This," Bastion now looked into Chazz's eyes. He raised a hand over his chest briefly before lowering it to the blazer. Slowly, almost unbearably slow, Bastion removed the yellow jacket and his green cotton shirt beneath and exposed not only his fit form (Chazz couldn't help but to notice), but a large cotton-filled patched with medical tape running horizontally over it to keep the patch over the wound more than likely there. "This is as close as I am able to be with you."

_What the… What is he talking about?_ Chazz thought as his eyes widened with the possible meanings to Bastion's words.

"What…" Chazz exhaled long and low, as if he were stricken physically in the chest.

"I don't want what you want," Bastion stared at the patch covering his left bicep. He touched it lightly and looked over at Chazz, continuing his explanations even though Chazz was giving him a confused look that begged for answers. "I don't want to be like I was with you, not anymore."

"What are you talking about?!" Chazz swung his feet over the edge of the bed, but did nothing more as the wound began to hurt. "Stop trying to sound so… so much like…" Chazz growled and let his eyes slip away into those emotions he couldn't seem to handle anymore. "You weren't anything more to me than some stranger forced upon me to teach me math! You do _not_ have—"

"I will still give you math lessons, Chazz," Bastion resumed calmly, but his tone had dropped a bit with annoyance and the angry look he gave Chazz as he stared the other down his nose showed his displeasure at being interrupted, "but I will not precipitate those rather odd, deluded, unwelcome, and disturbing fantasies you impose on me."

Chazz's eyes widened considerably. The contents of his stomach churned dangerously and his mouth felt sour. If Bastion continued his rant, he was going to vomit.

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Chazz snarled his defense, his eyes a mix of pure anger and confusion. "Imposing on you? Why would I even do that? One: I don't even know you. The only thing that put you in my life right now is the fact that you have to tutor me; otherwise you wouldn't have crossed my mind as anything other than an insignificant waste of space! Two: I don't like you. Period."

"You don't like me?" Bastion's question held no sort of surprise or disappointment, but rather like he was trying to repeat Chazz's words as though they were a foreign tongue. He kept his eyes locked with Chazz even as he took a step towards the bed.

"No, I don't," Chazz replied honestly with narrowed eyes and more spoken force than was needed. "Since the day you approached me and Jaden on the roof, my life has been nothing short of hell. You've ruined anything even remotely close to good that has happened in my life, and now you're accusing me of hitting on you?" Chazz scoffed at the sheer stupidity of the accusation before fixing Bastion with a glare that froze even the air they breathed. "Eat shit and die, you fucker."

Bastion stared, eyes wide, at Chazz face. The glare in his eyes and the threatening smirk on his face was challenging Bastion, and he could feel it. There was something begging, demanding that Bastion says something other than what Chazz had laid law. At the moment, from the look he was giving, Bastion swore that Chazz could argue that the world was a pyramid rather than a sphere.

Nonetheless, Bastion blinked and continued.

"You really don't understand, do you?" Bastion's heavy accent whispered in the stifling silence, his lips tracing every letter of his words in the shadows cast by the sun setting outside the window.

The shadows covered his eyes from Chazz's sight, and his expression was slowly devoured by the darkness. His stiff form and his tone of voice put Chazz on edge slightly. They were so low and precise. They were so… so even that they left even himself without objection, and Chazz mentally praised himself for whatever control he had remaining over his glare and his smirk. He may not have had any strong comebacks at the moment, but he would be damned if he would appear weak anymore before Bastion.

"What don't I understand, oh knowledgeable one?" Chazz mocked. A bluff, he knew, but he refused to back down or look a clueless fool. He had known one, and the emptiness in that one's head was enough for the both of them.

* * *

Jaden sneezed loudly and animatedly as he walked down the moonlit sidewalk. His teeth chattered as he struggled to gain more heat from his red jacket than was possible.

"Y-you can have m-my jacket if you need it," Syrus looked up at Jaden, but only for a second before he resumed looking down at the cracks in the sidewalk.

Jaden exhaled softly. Syrus had been watching the ground counting the cracks and memorizing their odd angles ever since he had woken up.

"No," Jaden shook his head, "besides, look at you! At least I'm not the stuttering!" Jaden joked slightly, his laughter lowering unnoticeable at the half-hearted laughter coming from Syrus.

Syrus said nothing more as he looked down at the passing gray beneath his red sneakers. Jaden could have taken his jacket, and he wouldn't have been cold. His voice shook with suppressed sobs and his skin; well he could have been cut repeatedly and not have felt a drop of pain. Even though he was awake, it felt almost unreal. Every step he took raised him higher and higher towards the sun. If only he could stop his wings from flapping and land inside of his body…

"Sy, are you alright?"

_I'm fine._ Syrus thought as he smiled. _Really, I am. Please ignore the fact that I stopped walking and that my legs won't move. Take my hand, please, and walk me home. Ignore the shaking of my body. It doesn't matter, I'm just cold. Pay no attention to the tears falling from my eyes and the rambling from my mouth. And Jaden, please don't be worried about my eyes closing in a faint. I'm just sleepy… very, very sleepy…_

"Sy!" Jaden cried out as he caught Syrus's unconscious body.

* * *

"Well?" Chazz demanded the smirk still on his lips even though his patients were wearing thin. "What don't I know?"

"I'm surprised," Bastion shook his head. "I thought you understood already. I've seen you suffering from them, Chazz. The nightmares and the lost expression on your face from every moment you can't explain your actions."

The smirk dissolved into a frown as Chazz continued to listen to Bastion.

"I know what's been going on, but only because of I feel the same thing," Bastion held his arm out to Chazz.

Even in the darkness, even without the light from the moon or even the glitters from the millions of stars in the sky, Chazz was able to see it. He couldn't believe his eyes, and pulled Bastion closer to him, their bodies almost uncomfortably close, as he turned Bastion's arm at angles that would make it seem as though Bastion's arm was disconnected at any joint.

It glowed in the shadows, providing its own eerie dull light that bore striking haunting shadows against its color. It flushed against Chazz's face and sent waves of comfortable heat through his body.

There against Bastion's skin, in the form of a thick line that held no ending nor a beginning, was crimson.


	11. Chapter Eleven : Drive

SlippingSanity: I am so sorry for taking so long to update! I really just haven't been on the computer at all lately. To busy doing stuff and stuff… yeah… Once again I am sorry! Enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh GX, nor do I own any of its characters. I am only borrowing them for this plot, and make no money from this. Yugioh Gx belongs to Kazuki Takahashi and to the many others that contributed to the GX creation. I take no credit; I am simply borrowing the characters for the plotline. Also, I apologize in advance if this is so odd and crappy! I couldn't hold the attention span to reread my other chapters (I still probably won't -_-...). I think it came out great though. Alot of drama and some more character development.

~~**~~**

* * *

Chapter Eleven

_Scarlet Rings: Drive_

Drive: To make an effort to reach or achieve an objective; aim.

Jaden stared at the stars as he sat on the rooftop of his home, his dark brown hair blowing with the cool, crisp nighttime air. He could hear the sounds of birds and crickets and cars on the nearly empty streets as the wind rustled the shadowed green leaves of surrounding trees. The moon hung in the sky, its pale light lining a thick dark cloud which covered its entirety from those whom would enjoy her. Stars twinkled in the distance before they were swept behind incoming pillows of light moisture.

"It's going to rain," Jaden whispered to himself as he stretched out on the rooftop with a small smile.

He shook his head and began to wonder why it was that he smiled at the thought of the soon-to-fall raindrops. He never really was a huge fan of the wet weather. Sure, there were the many things that made the cold, wet weather great, like drinking hot chocolate and covering up with multiple thick blankets to stay warm as while listening to whomever was there talk about random things, but he couldn't say that those were his favorite things. To him, the rain meant that he had to stay inside whereas in the sunlight he was allowed to run and feel free. He could laugh and joke around on sunny days, where as wet weather tended to make people feel drowsy and not much up to going out.

Jaden exhaled deeply and raised a hand to the heavens above. He watched the clouds rolling in the sky between his fingertips that shadowed by the streetlamps from below and the shadows from above. His smile slowly fell from his face, taking the shape of a frown as his brown eyes continued to stare at what his hands could not reach.

"I hate it…" Jaden whispered to the cold, the smell of rain filling his senses as he inhaled after speaking. His body tensed slightly at the idea of someone hearing him because he didn't want anyone question him. He didn't want anyone to have to worry about him, or to worry for him, because, to him, others fretting about him hurt worse than…

He winced when a drop of rain fell close to his right eye, closing the eye completely as some collected drops of rain fell from his spread fingertips down to his face. He could feel the fabric of the thin cotton black shirt and his thin character-print pajama pants becoming cold with the rain and the increasing wind but didn't feel it at the same time. It was as if he had become numb and only recognized the feelings because they were programmed in his senses. With a night such as the one he was enjoying wind is cool breezes, and with the rain came water and Jaden dully wondered if he could have shut down his thoughts completely if he wouldn't feel anything.

Jaden grit his teeth and clenched his hand into a tight fist that slammed down hard on the rooftop. A small splash was echoed in his ears as the falling rains sliding down was disturbed, some droplets landing on him as he continued to stare at the sky. Two open eyes glared out into the sky, and he briefly cursed everything.

Sure, he may not have believed in fate but he would still hate it. It there really was such a thing then why was he dealt such a crappy one?!

"Why do I have to die?!" Jaden's body shook with anger more than it did from the outside weather. His fist rose and fell against the rooftop once again, his left leg bending and rising before stomping down.

He inhaled sharply and exhaled slowly as he relaxed his limbs. His legs lay outstretched below him and his arms and fingers lay outstretched lax at his sides. A white puff of visible air rose from his parted lips and blew away with the wind.

"I'm getting weaker by the day," Jaden spoke to himself between heavy breaths of air. He turned to lie on his side, his left arm below his head as a pillow and his right brought to his eyelevel. Around his wrist was a light blue ribbon that he had tied a long time ago, and instantly his mind was filled with thoughts of Syrus smiling, Syrus laughing, Syrus frowning as he told Jaden about how inappropriate his actions were.

"Sy…" Jaden whispered as he continued to look at the ribbon. He may be goofy, but he was no fool. He knew long ago, even before the odd being calling himself "Jaiyen" appeared to him through him that there was something unique about Syrus. The fact that he needed to take in a portion of another person's life, whether a conscious act or not, was in no far way "common" by human standards. Syrus was something else entirely, though he was not sure what. Even still…

"I wouldn't change my decision for the world," Jaden closed his eyes and hugged his wrist close to his chest.

The rain poured down heavily.

* * *

~~**~~**

_It's raining._ Chazz's thoughts whispered faintly. The wind was blowing rapidly and the sun had long been replaced by the shadowed moon. Even still, the moonlight peeked through the clouds and into his room and landed on Bastion's exposed, stained wrist.

_It's raining._ His mind seemed to remind him again, and it was then that he had to admit to himself that he was distancing himself from reality. He was fighting away from something that could possibly be one of the most important discoveries in his life, and he was aware of this fact. He knew that he didn't want to face what was going on, but he was also curious in a sort of tiptoe-on-the-waters-surface sort of way. He wanted to explore this new, shocking turn of events, but he wasn't in the need to swim in those possibly deep waters.

_It's raining._ He could hear the falling water drops as they sailed along the increasing winds and landed against his window. Rapidly did they land and slide down his window, and he was sure that if he had turned to face the window he would be able to see the thin lines of water slid down glass covered with a thin layer of pale frost. He was sure that he would not be able to spot the moon in the sky, no matter how impossible it seemed that the moon had found himself and Bastion. He could picture the dark clouds rolling in the night, some clouds pitch black and others a dark gray as they sailed slowly through the night.

_It's raining._ Chazz's thoughts echoed and he could not help it as those very words passed his lips.

"Excuse me?" Bastion squint his eyes in both anger and question at Chazz's reply to something so serious. "Are you talking about the weather? Now?"

Chazz didn't reply to Bastion, he heard what Chazz had said, and Chazz wasn't going to repeat himself; One part pride, though the most of it embarrassment at his own foolish reply. He didn't know what had caused him to say such a stupid thing at such a serious stricken moment, as it had never happened to him before. Sure, there were the times in his many failed attempt to convey his feelings for Alexis that he said stupid things and felt the moisture collect on his skin and the blood freeze in his veins and felt his stomach drop and his heartbeat increase so rapidly it was almost an impossibility that he wouldn't die from a heart attack, but that shouldn't have mattered now. This moment was serious in a horror movie sort of way, but confessing to Alexis was serious in a life altering way that could have brought upon many changes.

Why did he feel the same way now?

"Are you… afraid, Chazz?" Bastion whispered as he raised his wrist closer to Chazz's eyes, hoping to catch the glaze from the other teen's eyes and peel it away with his side of reality.

_Afraid? Me? Of you?_ Chazz could not believe what he was hearing.

"Why…" Chazz grit between teeth clenched so tight they might break, "Why would I be afraid of you?" He hoped that his voice wasn't the one noticeably shaken.

"Are you afraid of this?" Bastion shook his wrist in Chazz's face before retracting his arm to his side.

Chazz's hand gripped his wrist before it could fall to his side. Bastion gasped at the rough contact. This was what Bastion believed he was afraid of. A simple thick red line curving into a never-ending circle around his left wrist. Something that, as far as he and possibly the entire population of Neo Domino, was around only one wrist and that wrist was his own.

"Afraid of this?" Chazz asked his voice high and sarcasm heavy. "_I'm_ afraid of this? Not even!" Chazz raised his head and looked Bastion directly in the eyes. The nastiest glare Bastion had ever seen was now almost as near to his body as the clothing he wore, but only an inch or so apart as Chazz had yanked him closer.

"Listen Bastion," Chazz spat at him, his tongue carving hatred from its natural element. "I don't know what kind of crap you think you are pulling here, but I've had just about enough of it. You think I'm supposed to believe in some marker drawn fantasy or some mutilated wrist? Get real. I'm falling for this about as far as dirt is from the ground, so I'll tell you this in the nicest way I possibly can. Take your wrist and this fake ring around it and shove up you ass 'til it comes out of your mouth and choke on it!"

Even as he had spoken those words that he so definitely meant, something stirred in him. A twist. A feeling of both fear and regret. His skin bristled at both what he had said and how he felt, and for some reason he thought briefly of himself as a hypocrite.

"Chazz, this isn't a fake," Bastion replied bluntly, his eyes never leaving the glare Chazz continued to give him.

"Like hell it's real!" Chazz stood from the bed and stared at Bastion, his hands clenched into fists, his shoulders tense, the atmosphere around him daring Bastion to say another word.

"It's as real as the one you try hard to hide on your own left wrist!" Bastion's patience seemed to have run out with Chazz. His eyebrows furrowed and eyes blazed angrily with flickering flames.

Chazz stared at Bastion in silence. His anger- his only source of energy at the moment- seemed to have left him all at once, leaving him behind and replacing itself with a second of dizziness. Chazz moaned lowly but otherwise showed no sign of faintness or relent.

"The one on my wrist?" Chazz repeated, laughing.

He listened in on the sounds of his own laughter, drowning out the sounds of Bastion's voice. He couldn't understand whether or not his small action was unintentional or not, but it seemed like the right reaction. For some reason he felt as though he were laughing not at the words from Bastion's mouth nor from the scarlet ring around the other teen's wrist, but rather from the absolute insanity that started the entire mess.

"_I don't want to be like I was with you…"_

The waters he so wanted to avoid splashed around him. The waves rushed past him as he stood there. He was beginning to sink, so he was forced to swim.

"What do you mean you were with me?" Chazz's laughter ended in a manner so abrupt that it had startled Bastion. His tone was eerily soft and calm, almost unlike the Chazz that Bastion had come to know. "We've never known each other before this tutoring began, so how were you with me?"

Bastion inhaled, ready to begin his explanation. He licked his lips and inhaled softly.

"Chazz…" Bastion began, but was cut off by said teen.

"What do you mean by you don't want to be with me?" A voice similar to Chazz's own whispered, though the voice was deeper and sharper and sent chills down Bastion's spine.

Bastion took a small step backwards and looked into Chazz's eyes. Nothing had changed in their color, as they remained a deep shade of black, but the eyes seemed to have loss that competitive edge they gave him not even a minute ago. His eyes stared not at him, but at the floor beneath their feet with a sort of thought over expression.

"What do you mean?" Chazz repeated his voice soft like a whisper to a child.

Chazz was there, Bastion concluded, but he wasn't present enough to understand properly. Bastion could picture Chazz walking on a thin line of thread balancing between the real world and complete shadows, unable to decipher which was real from fake and which was his reality.

"Come to me. I'll make it all stop," Bastion spoke softly as he wrapped his arms around Chazz and pulled him close.

It was like lightning flashed and Chazz opened his eyes. He opened his mouth to protest, but found that no words would come from his lips. He continued to sit on his bed with Bastion's arms wrapped around him mute, surprised, rigid, and uncomfortable.

Seconds to minutes passed. Rain fell continuously and heavily and Bastion still had not released him.

"Chazz…" Bastion whispered, and the addressed teen found himself involuntarily relaxing in the hug. "Come to me."

"What?" Chazz rested his head on Bastion's shoulder. "What are you talking about?"

Bastion said nothing in reply, and within seconds the room became blanketed by an almost choking silence. Stuffy and hot as it was, Chazz could not help but notice that he was oddly comfortable. He was tired but relaxed, confused but at ease, angry yet happy, cold but oh so very, very warm.

He said nothing nor did anything other than let the time pass by. He wasn't even sure when it was that his own arms wrapped around Bastion, but he did not voice any complain. It was some sort of odd, horrible, striking comfort in the swirling waters, and his every being was relaxed on some strange land.

… And then it was hot.

Chazz's skin tingled and burned with a pain that repeatedly struck at every nerve in his skin. The room spun. His breathing all but stopped completely in his throat. He could hear his heart pounding rapidly, frighteningly, in his chest.

_Ba-bump._ The room spun around him and tilted on various levels.

_Ba-bump._ He mutely screamed as he could feel himself slipping away.

_Ba-bump._ There was darkness…

"Chazz…" Bastion whispered his name once again.

"No. Not Chazz," A deep voice laced with obvious intent whispered into Bastion's ear as their body lay almost boneless and limp against Bastion's chest.

Bastion inhaled a shuddering breath.

"Remember me?" Arms that had fallen to the bed now rose and snaked around Bastion's neck. The body once so close pulled away slightly to look Bastion in the face.

Crimson eyes glittered in the moonlight, a slight smile on the lips below them.

"It's Chaise…"

Bastion froze in both movement and speech. He could not explain his past actions nor the words that had left his mouth, and now his usually calm and calculated mind refused to even help his vision. Red eyes that stared up at him so happily, the rain pelted window, the cloudy dark sky and blades of lighting all lay upside down on the floor.

"I-I have you!" The face with crimson eyes smiled brightly before sinking into the waters of rage. "I have you…"

Words continued to fail Bastion as they raced around his head like frantic bees without a queen. He knew that he wanted to say something, but more than anything a voice within him cried out to him to remain silent.

"You are here… but even still you'd reject me…" Eyes like fire continued to burn into his own. "You called his name again. You called out to me, but even still you'd call me Chazz."

"Hold on," Bastion found his voice even as the voice begged to remain lost. "I didn't call out to you! I would never do such a thing-"

"So you'd hug him?" Chaise whispered as his eyes retreated behind his ink black bangs. "You'd hug Chazz and hold him. You even consoled him when he was confused and desperate and angry…"

Chaise sat on Bastion's chest with a shivering body. His breathing was ragged and heavy, roaring louder than the echoing thunder outside of the window. Arms that held Bastion tighter than a snake slowly retreated to wrap around his own bandaged torso. Legs that spread almost sensually around Bastion's legs now poked painfully into his ribs as they tried to come together like they would in a fetal position.

Bastion said nothing in response as he tilted his head away from the sad sight.

"Do you… like Chazz?" Chaise's voice was broken and strained as he spoke those four words.

He sounded like he was on the verge of tears and Bastion felt sympathy for him. He used his arms to push himself upright and watched as the smaller one shook in his lap helplessly whilst not knowing what to do. Logically he should try to comfort the teen but that may actually hurt more than help at this point. And especially the feelings of apparently Love…

"You won't answer me!" Chaise screamed his voice heavy with unshed tears and emotion. "Why won't you answer me?!"

Bastion stared through the night up at the face so torn in the shadows with nothing short of sympathy. The other- This person whom calls himself Chaise- was going crazy over something as simple as comfort for another.

Chaise, the being with glowing red eyes and malicious intent leaking from him in waves, was trembling with fear and anger. His fingers twitched as they repeatedly struggled to grasp for a loving touch that wasn't there anymore. His body shook from the cold, his mind going back to the days where, even on the coldest of dessert nights, he could always receive warmth from those strong arms that held him so tightly, so comfortingly, so lovingly…

"Why?" He repeated as his muscles seemed to clench together tight enough to send spasms through him.

The question echoed in Chazz's bedroom and clung in the cold night air so much it could almost have been inhaled. The rain continued to tap against the glass window and slide down silently as the lightning flashed overhead. Thunder roared louder than ever, as if to aide Chaise's tone which had lessened with his last weak demand.

Seconds easily became minutes before Bastion made any attempt at anything. Fabric rustled in the darkness as Bastion sat up, Chaise paralyzed in his lap.

"I understand, logically of course, the fact that you would want to be with me." Bastion's tone was soft, almost a faint whisper as he slowly raised a hand to cup Chaise's moist cheek. He removed it almost instantly when Chaise twitched, his eyes still unfocused and pained. "I can tell you exactly what you must feel. Lonely. Hurt. Scared of losing someone so close to you that it confuses you and makes you angry when you can do nothing but watch the distance between yourself and them grow wider and wider." Bastion stared into Chaise's wide red eyes, using his hand to raise the other's chin so that he looked into his eyes. "You are hurt and angry and you don't know what to do, do you?"

Chaise could feel it. That burning cool that ran through him in both body and bone. He could barely resist the urge to shiver as Bastion's stabbing, sweet words continued to process in his thoughts.

_I don't know what to do?_ Chaise dropped his gaze from Bastion's waiting eyes to the chest so close but at a distance from him. _**Do**__ I know what I want to do?_ Chaise questioned himself as he watched Bastion's chest rise and fall with each inhale and exhale of breath he'd taken. _I'm not mad at him! I'm frustrated!_ Chaise rapidly tried to reason within himself the heated pricks that rose inside of him and threatened to spill over in the sounds of angry words and vile curses. _I'm not mad or sad at all!_

"I'm not mad…" Chaise growled as he shakily stood to his feet. "I don't care about anything that you just said! I'm not sad or mad or anything like that!" Chaise shook his head while he talked, reasoning with both Bastion and himself as he was.

He hoped that Bastion believed him far more than he believed himself.

"I know what I want, Bastion! I've been trying to get what I want since I got here!" Chaise screamed, his glare darkening in the nighttime's hidden moonlight. "Why would _I_ be lonely?! I've only waited centuries for you to return to me! I've only endured the torture of countless lives on the many different continents with unparalleled hope that I could at least catch a glimpse of you that wasn't a dream before being captured, bound, and killed! I've only willing been able to repeat the cycle whenever anyone on this planet has at least a _drop_ of compatible essence within them just because I would believe that maybe, just maybe, you were right there with open arms waiting just for me!"

Wild, wide eyes now held tears collected in the corners of his eyes, stinging them as he blinked and willed the water not to fall. Blood drew from a bitten bottom lip and slid down Chaise's trembling chin, jaw muscles twitching- moving with raw emotion and stopping with whatever pride he'd forced himself to retain after spilling what he had been so determined to hide. A single fist clenched to the point of drawing blood shook above Bastion's chest giving small red dots home where they landed on his body, the other fisting tightly at a lock of black hair to the right Chaise's head.

"Who cares…if I'm lonely?" Chaise released his hair, but the arm moved no further. "And I could be mad, but… …no, I am. But, don't I have a right?" Chaise questioned to the air, muttering and mumbling over and over before Bastion could reply. "No, I don't have it… …it's what I want. … What I really want is…"

Chaise stared down the tip of his nose to the teen on the floor beneath his stiff, oddly calm form. Arms that shook with unrestrained emotion now rest at his sides, shoulders even and back straight with a new found dedication to something…

Bastion silently swallowed heavily as a bead of cold sweat rolled down his cheek. The new attitude… The determined look… There was something Chaise decided on his own that would not bode to his liking, Bastion decided whilst clenching a fist.

"What do you want?" Bastion met the dazed crimson eyes with his orbs of barely concealed fear and confusion.

Chaise exhaled shakily, a moan passing heavily as he folded on top of Bastion. He continued to pant and moan as he fought against the struggling teen beneath him, relishing in the fact that his power was stronger than that of the present Bastion.

"What!?" Bastion panicked when he tried to raise his arms to shove Chaise away only to notice the illuminating red light surrounding his wrists and weighing him down. Panic began to fill him again as the same results accompanied his legs and ankles.

"B-Bastion?" Chaise panted as he grinded against Bastion, a thin veil of sweat beginning to cover him. "I…" He whispered a small smirk tugging one corner of his mouth. "I want you."


End file.
